A Reapers Vacation
by Chibi-Reaper
Summary: Pokegirl fic. A mad scientist's invention goes horribly wrong and he is punished by god for it. Unable to return home until he has redeemed himself, what if he can't remember what he's being redeemed for?
1. Chapter 1

A loud crackle of electricity combined with a practiced 'Mad scientist's cackle' echoed through the room, supported with the numerous whirring noises of multiple large, strange mechanical devices.

"I've done it! After eighteen weeks of hard labor digging out and building a secret basement lab, four months of hooking together unnessecarily complicated machinery, six days and nights of inputting incomprehensible code that even I can barely understand, and enough cups of coffee to fill a medium sized sea, I have finally completed my masterpiece! Now... if only I could remember what it does. Where are my notes?"

The ranting man looked to be somewhere in the vicinity of twentyish, with a long blonde ponytail hanging almost to the small of his back, a small set of oval glasses on his nose, and a short cropped beard. He was also wearing a lab coat which may once have been a uniform white, but was now coated in a patchwork of stains, mainly from dirt and oil, and burn marks. After a few minutes of digging around in stack after stack of paper, he found a small notebook and began flipping through it rapidly.

"Lightsaber... no. Blueprint for a flying saucer... somehow I doubt it. One of those clicky, pen-sized memory rewriting things I saw in that movie... nope. Ah, this is it... probably. A massive enertronic... lots of long, confusing words... ah, here's what it does... tears the fabric of reality in a contained area, creating a portal to another location or alternate universe, or alternatively compressing everything within a one lightyear diameter into a single microscopic point as it emulates a black hole. Something of a large margin of error there... but what would be the point of building the thing if I wasn't going to try it out?"

He grinned and looked for the switch... only to come up blank on the smooth surfaces on the main machine. He circled it twice, then checked the top and bottom. Still nothing.

"Wait... I forgot to install an 'on' switch? GODDAMMIT!"

In frustration, he kicked the side of the machine, starting a coughing and spluttering noise inside that quickly evened out as it swiftly increased in pace. Two large metal circles began rotating and spinning rapidly around each other. He shrugged.

"Well... I guess that works almost as well... huh?"

He blinked and took a closer look at the swirling circles. Not that he knew what a dimensional portal was supposed to look like, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't whatever that thing was.

A slimy tentacle oozed out of the thing and the tip opened up into a hideous mouth, swallowing him whole. His last thought was...

'Well... well crap. THAT wasn't supposed to happen at all.'

Then everything went dark.

xxx

A Reaper's Vacation

xxx

He groaned as he sat up, noticing dimly that, against all odds, he had somehow survived... and was currently sore enough to wish that he hadn't. Also, he was now completely naked beneath his lab coat and covered liberally in an iridescent, technicolor ooze. Fumbling in the pocket, he withdrew a spare set of glasses and shook them to get the gunk off before placing them carefully on his nose.

"Riiiight. Somehow, I'm alive, so either the experiment was an overwhelming success, albeit in a manner _far_ different from what I'd expected, or I screwed up, released a cthuloid monstrosity on the world and am currently being punished by god."

A flash of lightning behind him later revealed "The second one." carved into a rock. He didn't turn around.

"Given that there is no evidence to the contrary, I choose to believe my experiment to be a resounding, if slightly flawed, success."

This time the lightning crashed directly into him, leaving him covered with soot and smoldering as he exhaled a cloud of thick black smoke.

"I choose to believe that there was a rational, scientific explanation for that, likely involving pure, random chance."

Another zap.

"Right." Coughs out black smoke, and a large flake of blackened lung tissue. "Shutting up now. And God? I hate you."

He slumped to the ground, mumbling something blasphemous under his breath as he lost consciousness... again.

Several hours later, he sat slowly up and glared aimlessly before blinking and wondering why he was glaring.

"Strange... for some reason I cannot recall anything before waking up here."

A fourth lightning bolt began, but sputtered out halfway to earth as if the almighty had just decided to say 'Screw it, leave the idiot his delusions' midway through.

"Nothing at all... not my name, where I live, or why I'm waking up naked in the middle of nowhere, coated with a substance I'd rather not try to identify."

Oh yeah. Electrically induced amnesia via Divine Punishment would make watching the chastisement of the dumbass who had destroyed his own universe for no reason whatsoever much more fun to watch. Mainly because before he could be cleansed of the sin of the accidental murder of infinite lifeforms, have his universe restored, and be reinserted into the time stream a few days before he made his decision to build that thing, he had to repent of his stupidity. Given this particular individual, it could take anywhere from decades to centuries, as he would not be allowed to die until he _had_ repented.

If he didn't remember what he had done wrong, and had no idea that he was supposed to repent anything, it might take a little longer.

God considered this for about a microsecond, then pressed the 'record' button for this particular universe. It would no doubt lighten up many a dull, dreary millenia.

The man had moved to a sitting position and was stroking his beard as he thought.

"Name, name, name. What is my name? I remember! My name is... Jynrath Sylvas Darkreaper the Third! Wait... no it isn't..."

He sat there and considered for another few minutes, then shrugged. Obviously he wasn't getting any closer to his real name, so there was no real reason not to use the made-up one.

"Still... it's a little long. Shorten it maybe? Jynrath Sylvas? No... I don't like that. It needs to be more aesthetically pleasing. Switch it around, Sylvas Jynrath. That's better. Sounds slightly feminine, but I don't really care."

He nodded and stood up. Now... which way to go? Arbitrarily speaking, no direction looked better than the others, so he decided to choose in the best manner he knew. He closed his eyes and spun around rapidly with one arm and his index finger extended. He opened his eyes and shrugged. That way seemed as good as any.

Then he fell to the ground moaning.

"D... Dizzy... make the world stop spinning..."

xxx

"Hold the line! Don't let a single one of these bitches past!"

"Too... Too many! There's too many, Captain! We'll be overrun!"

"Hold the line, damn you! If even one of those ferals gets past us and to the refuge, it'll be a massacre! We don't know whether anyone else is alive out there. For all we know, we are the only safeguards for the last of humanity! We can't afford to fail!"

The ranks, consisting mainly of human soldiers, the remnants of the Army, Navy, Air force, Marines, and black ops units all merged into a single unit for the sake of survival saluted, with the few of the enemies they had subverted doing so as well after only a half-moment of hesitation.

"Sir, yes sir!"

He nodded and they went back to their preparations for the swarm of female monsters that were in turn preparing to attack them. He shook his head. Pokegirls. It was a name for them that some muckety-muck had given them after noting a few similarities between them and the creatures in his child's favorite video game.

Personally, he didn't care to call them anything other than the enemy. If he thought of them as anything else, it was harder to kill them.

It was a pity that it had taken so long for them to discover the creatures little quirk. He'd spent a whole ten minutes laughing when he'd first learned. Then he locked himself away for an hour. It was so easy, and it left them with one more willing, even eager soldier, but with superhuman abilities to match that of the enemy.

If they'd known soon enough, the war wouldn't have cost so many lives.

He was distracted from his brooding over the past by a distant explosion in the midst of the gathering force.

"Simmons!" He barked. "What the hell is going on out there!"

"I... Sir, you're never going to believe this..."

xxx

(Estimated time, roughly ten minutes before explosion.)

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit! Goddammit!"

Despite Sylvas' irritation, the cursing was kept down to the tiniest whisper, partly because he was out of breath from running, and mostly because he didn't want to be caught by the girls outside. Granted, they were pretty and all, but the blood dripping from their teeth and claws and the hungry way they looked at him were somewhat off-putting. And it wasn't the good hungry way either... it was the 'I'm a large predator who hasn't eaten in three days and you just wandered into my lair' hungry.

Once he'd gotten out of the forest, dodging them had proven _slightly_ easier, but still problematic in that he hadn't realized that the small town he'd found was deserted. And infested with more and multiple types of the female demons.

He wasn't quite sure he remembered exactly what a demon was, but it seemed to be an apt description for the girls outside. They were everywhere. None of them seemed smarter than your average dog, whatever that was, but they were all over the place. In the forest, in the streams and the large river flowing throught town, ambling through the streets and trying to sniff him out... apparently whatever this slime was it blocked his scent... and tracking him from the very skies above.

On the plus side, he'd managed to find a pair of pants, so he wasn't relying on nothing but his lab coat to cover himself with.

There were probably even more of them burrowing under the ground to get at him. He chuckled at the thought, but the chuckle died as the wooden floor began cracking and bulging in one spot.

"I hate you god."

He glanced quickly around the room and out the window, knowing that it would probably only take another minute or two for it to fight a large enough hole for it to fit through in the wooden flooring. This room was a storage facility of sorts, with lots of planks of wood, lead pipes, and canisters of propane. Outside there was a pawn shop, just across the street. Through the open doorway, he could see a case of guns and knives.

"OH... bad idea... this is a very bad idea... dammit."

Still, he couldn't think of anything smarter to do, and so he began quickly piling propane tanks up around the small crack. By the time a mud-covered hand stuck through the floor, he'd kicked the front door off its hinges and was running across the street. By the time a curious and hungry head poked through the hole, he had hold of a loaded handgun. By the time its eyes widened, the bullet had been fired.

Unfortunately, Sylvas had completely forgotten about the others in the town, and had only realized that things going boom would alert them to his position about a second _after_ he'd pulled the trigger.

"DAMMIT!" he yelled, as he tore off down the street, not bothering to keep his voice down.

xxx

"It's a civilian survivor sir! Average height, male, wearing glasses, pants, and a lab coat, and with unusually long hair. Not sure what he had to do with the explosion, but he's running full tilt away from it and is armed with what appears to be a lead pipe, a long hunting knife, and a small handgun tucked into the backs of his pants. Permission to send out a rescue squad, sir?"

"Denied. The idiot did a good job of getting our attention, but he also caught the eye of every feral in a quarter mile radius. If he survives and makes it here on his own, we'll let him in. Otherwise it would be an unacceptable waste of manpower."

"S-sir... Permission to lay down suppression fire?"

The captain considered the request for a moment. On the one hand, despite their stockpiles of ammunition, bullets were almost as important to conserve as men. On the other hand, a normal human could only keep two, or at best three Pokegirls under control at a time, and a new recruit would mean they would be capable of controlling at least two more living weapons... provided they were able to catch them.

"Granted, but be sparing. If it looks like he's going to get away on his own, there's no need to waste a bullet. Remember that even with that bastard Sukebe gone, a horde gathering in one place like that is nothing to be ignored. They're planning something, and we need to be ready for it."

Simmons nodded and barked orders to the others.

"Snipers, at the ready! Keep the blonde man alive, fire only to kill and only if it doesn't seem like he will survive otherwise!"

The captain nodded and sat back into his chair as he tried to figure out how the later attack would come, and what the best way to defend their outpost was. Would they begin with a straightforward attack, before revealing it as a feint, or would they start by divebombing the defenders from above? Perhaps they would come in from underground? He began sweating lightly with the effort of setting up a plan of defense that accounted for every possible angle of attack.

xxx

Sylvas had taken to the roofs by way of a fire escape. It had made sense at the time, as once he'd gotten up there and released a switch that sent the whole contraption falling to the ground there would only be the flying she-beasts to contend with, but he had forgotten one thing. Namely that it severely limited _his_ options of escape as well.

So now he was jumping from roof to roof, occasionally only barely making the leap between buildings and avoiding falling into the seething mobs below, and dodging the winged she-beasts that dived at him, or alternatively smacking them with his lead pipe.

As their coordination and timing got better, there was progressively less dodging and more smacking of pipe and skull.

Then he got an idea. Granted, it was almost as dumb as his previous one, but he wasn't the type to stop and think about things before doing them. He ducked under a swiping claw, slamming the pipe into the assailant's stomach as he passed, kicked one of the she-beasts in the face and sent her sprawling back to the street as he noted that they had begun scaling the walls, then leapt straight out from the building and grabbed hold of one of the winged she-beasts.

He wasn't sure what he'd meant to do. Maybe to somehow force it to fly him to a safer place? What happened, however, was that the unsuspected assault knocked it off its flight pattern, and sent them both crashing to the ground. Perhaps five or six feet away from two dozen of the landbound shebeasts.

For a long moment they all paused, unbelieving of his stupidity. Then he sat up, wincing, and replaced his cracked glasses, sending a blank stare towards the mob.

"... Ooops?"

They leapt as one.

xxx

"Shit... and he was doing so well too."

"Hold your fire! Damned if I know how he's doing it, but look!"

Indeed, the blonde was twisting and rolling apparently randomly, but was somehow evading almost every attack against him. Every now and then a claw or barbed tail would get close enough to slash through fabric or draw a drop or two of blood, but the accumulated damage to his body was no more than the equal of a few papercuts.

"He's... he's either incredibly skilled..."

"... Or inhumanly lucky."

"Either way, we definitely have to recruit this guy... if his luck holds out, that is."

"I wouldn't bet on that... that one's going to get him. You see? It's the only one not flailing randomly at him... it's waiting to see what his most likely pattern of dodging will be, and it'll attack _before_ he moves. There it goes now!"

xxx

Sylvas' eyes widened and he grit his teeth in pain as he spared a glance down at his chest. A slender, feminine arm was poking out of his left shoulder. A left arm. Thinking quickly, he tilted his head and slammed his lead pipe behind him. There was an audible crack of metal against flesh, and the shebeast fell. Forward. The combined extra weight and pressure against his new wound sent him stumbling to his knees.

The frustrated shebeasts weren't about to leave such a weakness unexploited.

xxx

"Fire!"

xxx

The first bullet was completely unexpected. It whistled in out of nowhere and caught a feline shebeast between the eyes. It slumped down dead and a second and third bullet whizzed in. One lodged in the throat of a shebeast that looked like she had grown from a tree, and the third missed completely as its target had teleported away before the feline shebeast had begun to fall.

The rest scattered, darting into doors and diving underground to avoid the hot lead. Sylvas attempted to use the breather to catch his wits. If the bullets had only come when it looked like he was going to die... then someone had at least a slight interest towards his survival. Therefore, it would be prudent to seek this person or persons out. The gore and brains were splattered in _that_ direction... meaning the bullet had come from _there_.

Standing slowly, he winced as the shebeast's arm flopped around and dragged against his raw flesh. Logically, he would just lean backwards and let the arm slide quickly, and painfully, out of the hole in his shoulder, but he had already used up his store of logic in determining where he should go, and why.

So instead, he leaned forward and grunted softly as the shebeast's full weight nearly caused him to collapse back to the ground.

xxx

"I can't get a bead on the one on his back without taking the risk that the bullet will hit him too!"

"Leave it. He'll need a Pokegirl of his own when he gets here anyway... unless one of you want to hand a girl off to him?"

Scattered negative sounds was the only answer to Simmons query.

"Right. Besides... If he takes the arm out, he'll bleed out long before he gets here. As long as that hole in his chest is mostly plugged, it won't bleed as much. Lucky he managed to twist away though... I'm pretty sure she was aiming for the heart, but considering the pace he's going, it doesn't even look like she did more than maybe nick a lung."

"He's headed right for us, ETA between ten and fifteen minutes. Go make sure the doctor's ready!"

xxx

He'd lost his pipe somewhere.

He wasn't sure why that irritated him so much, as he still had a handgun tucked into the waistband of his pants, and the knife in the pocket of his lab coat, but he somehow felt like he would be safer if he could have held on to the sturdy pipe.

It seemed ridiculous, but when he had to pause to dissuade one of the shebeasts that had gotten too close, it seemed like they were less worried about the knife and gun than they'd been about the pipe.

The attacks became less and less frequent the further from town he got. After a point, they stopped attacking and seemed to withdraw backwards, watching him leave as he broke through the treeline.

The structure he saw there was impressive. Two large turrets to either side of a gate set into a mountain. At a glance, he figured that the turrets, while appearing to be made out of wood, had a metal or stone frame to keep them stable. Otherwise, they would have to have been made by a genius of construction.

He could dimly make out milling figures on the bridge connecting them as the gate swung slowly open.

"Get him in, hurry. We can't leave the gates open too long, or the feral Pokegirls will take note, and we aren't ready to repel an attack yet."

"Shit, he's too pale. He's lost more blood than expected, where the hell is that doctor!?"

The world faded slowly to black.

xxx

When he came to, the first thing he noticed was whiteness. The ceiling of the room was white, the walls were white, the tiles on the floor were gleaming and spottlessly white, the mattress and sheets he was lying on were white. Everything was white, except where the blood had seeped through his bandages to stain red.

Then he noticed the smell... a combined essence of antiseptic, vomit, stale blood, and death. Mainly antiseptic, of course, but there was enough of the others to leave him slightly green.

He hated this place already, and got the feeling that he would be seeing a lot more of it.

"Aha, ze patient iz avake, yes?"

Sylvas turned to the voice, then stared and blinked at the hunched... doctor? For some reason, looking at him gave the impression 'Scientist'. What was really striking him dumb, though, was that he was almost certain that he hadn't been in the room a second ago, and he hadn't heard a door open or close. Or footsteps for that matter.

"I am ze doctor... my name iz Hojo. Now... let'z take a look at ze vound, shall ve?"

Completely ignoring the way warning bells had, for whatever reason, begun ringing at the sound of the doctor's name, Sylvas sat up and allowed Hojo to remove the bandaging and prod at the sealed hole.

"Hmm... Interesting. Ve could not afford to spare ze potions and elixers ve managed to capture from ze Pokegirl Supply Train, but ze synthesized brews ve have been experimenting with ourselves seem to be vorking nearly as vell as ze originals. Ze damaged tissue and bone has regrown nicely, vith no signs of infection. You should be good as new vith another hour or so of time for the synth-elixer to finish its vork. Up you get... I haff been assigned to valk you around our little town and zubtly question you about yourself and the state of ze outside world. Zere is a shirt over zere, and I took ze liberty of replacing your lab coat... ze old one was quite irreperable."

Sylvas blinked as he stood up and began testing the range of motion of his arm. There was a slight drag and pinch at the circle of new, pink skin, but aside from that everything seemed in perfect working order.

"You know... is it really 'subtle' if you straight out tell me that you'll be prodding for information?"

"Not really, no, but I haff always preferred to be relatively direct in zese matters. It gets things finished with and returns me to ze matters I prefer to deal with much faster."

Sylvas shrugged as he finished tugging the black shirt on and reached for the lab coat.

"Not sure what I can tell you, Doc."

"Pleaze... call me Hojo. Ze vord 'Dok'... It makes me vish to poison your food and perform a sex-change operation upon you in your sleep."

"Hojo it is then. But there's still not much I can tell you... mostly because I don't know much myself. All I remember is waking up in the woods, wandering into town, and running away from the shebeasts... Pokegirls, they called them, right? And what might or might not be my name."

"Hmm... an intriguing tale. An amnesiac vaking in the voods, and just happening to find his vay to our outpost. All the better in that it would be incredibly difficult to disprove. The perfect method for a spy to enter our midst."

There was a long silence.

"Zis is vhere you vould act affronted at the suggestion that you vere here to spy upon us, and I vould vehemently deny any such accusation."

"Oh yeah... I forgot to tell you. The name, which may or may not be mine? It's Sylvas. Sylvas Jynrath. Ah... I'm afraid I missed what you were saying though."

"... Ze spy idea was dumb anyway. Vith the vorld in ze state it is in, vhy vould anyone bother to spy on us? And even if they did, vhy send an idiot like this?"

xxx

Sylvas stared in awe. This wasn't a mountain... it was an extinguished volcano. The inside was hollow, with the walls going up straight for a few hundred feet, then tapering up to the large opening at the top. Squinting, he could almost make something out... like a net had been spread over the top of the opening.

"You have good eyes, I see. Stretched across ze top of the volcano are vires that are hooked up to our power grid. Vhen under attack, a flip of ze switch reroutes all frivolous uses of electricity towards ze vires, ensuring that no flying type Pokegirl vill even approach ze opening, much less attempt to pass. I constructed this place as my personal hidden laboratories before Sukebe 'Cursed ze Vorld', as some refer to it. Zis vas not too long ago, only a short decade and a half. Here, ze soldiers haff set up an independent defense against ze Pokegirls. Sukebe himself may be gone, but his generals haff not yet abandoned ze fight. One of zem is out zere now, gathering an army of Pokegirls to lay siege upon us."

Hojo paused for breath.

"Sadly, ve haff had no news from ze outside vorld for years, and are running low on food and supplies. For all we know, ze Pokegirls haff viped out all other pockets of humanity, and ve are ze last of our species left. In zat case... ve haff an obligation to survive, to rebuild. But zis place is not really a fortress. Ve are surrounded... all ze general has to do is vait and pick off the soldiers who volunteer to leave ze safety of ze volcano to scavenge for food and vater, and ze rest of us vill swiftly starve to death. She knows zis, and has not ordered her troops to attack because of it."

Sylvas shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets, idly memorizing the layout of buildings. Those were barracks, where the soldiers slept. Those over there... looked like normal houses. Maybe noncombatants slept there? Over there was a big, blocky, warehouse-like building, with an 'Open' sign on the front. A shop? What could they possibly have to sell around here if they had been cut off from everywhere for so long? What would they use as money? Obviously the one they'd come out of was the hospital, and that one over there _might_ be an ammo stockpile... he noted dimly that his gun and knife were gone... and that one looked like it might lead out to the gate.

And those were just the buildings he had some idea of, what were the rest?

"Where can we get something to eat?" he asked bluntly. Hojo gave him a _look_, you know the kind, then sighed deeply.

"I vill have one of my assistants take a break from our pressink research to go make you a sandvich or something. For now, ze captain vishes to haff a vord vith you. Zis vay."

Sylvas completely missed the large dash of sarcasm as he nodded and followed.

xxx

The Pokegirl was bored. Mainly because she was chained to the wall in a position that left her unable to use her prodigious Warrior strength to break the chains.

That's what she was... a Warrior. From the beginning, there hadn't been many of her type around, as they had been a stepping stone to the creation of more advanced swordusers. Ronin, Slicers, Armsmistresses and the like. Once they had created those 'Advancements', Sukebe's scientists had completely passed by further study into the warrior type... the only advantage they seemed to have was that they could summon swords from nowhere.

And so, the Warriors had all gone directly to the front lines, given a sword and only sometimes a shield as well, with barely any idea of how to use the things, while the 'More Advanced' weaponusers were held back from the fights until they had learned all sorts of nifty tricks. Naturally, when the Warrior breeds were slaughtered by human weapons almost as fast as they were spawned in the impartial labratories, it was blamed on 'flawed design', and the scientists stopped creating Warriors entirely.

Yeah... there was just a little bitterness there.

She herself had been one of the last to be released from the tanks before they were reprogrammed. The generals hadn't cared, and continued to use what was left of the Warriors just like the other cannon fodder. It was sink or swim, either you did well and survived and rose to the top, like Lady Artemis had, or you became one more nameless, faceless corpse.

And now she'd been captured by a human. Granted, the human had definitely impressed her by managing to avoid her killing strike, and shouldn't have possibly managed to knock her out with just a lead pipe, and if she thought about it, it was truly impressive that he'd managed to survive long enough to get to the human outpost with a big hole in his chest, but it still rankled that she had been captured by a human.

She shrugged mentally. Such was life. Then again... until the link had been established between Tamer and Pokegirl, she still had an opportunity to escape. She began thinking and mentally cursed her breed's low intelligence rating as a light mental fog kept her from making any reasonable plans.

Swords were out... while she could create one from nothing, she wasn't yet skilled enough at it to make anything more than blunt, dented training weapons crafted from either potmetal or tin. The odds of spontaneously managing to create a sword of high enough quality that it could sever the chains or the stone was incredibly low. Not to mention that there was no way she could angle the sword behind her and swing it properly anyway.

She still couldn't figure out a way to get enough leverage to either break the chains or tear them off the wall. Pity. For a moment, she considered smiling brightly at whoever opened the door, and asking them if they wouldn't please let her go if she promised to be nice? She bit the thought off. That sounded like something _she_ would do. And worse yet, she would probably manage to pull it off, while... She grunted in disgust.

... This was boring.

xxx

"Be polite vhen you enter ze Captain's office... despite ze fact zat zis entire volcano _technically_ belongs to me, he can still haff you shot if you piss him off enough. And his soldiers von't hesitate to do it."

The wide grin on Hojo's face as he said this was some cause for concern... if Sylvas had been paying attention, anyway. Hojo just shrugged, already used to the young man's eccentricies (He must haff ADD. Zere is no other explanation), and dragged him throught the door.

"Here he is, captain. Do you haff any more chores for me, or may I leave?"

A hand whipped from behind the large chair, signalling him off. Hojo left immediately. Then the chair swiveled around and the two left in the room sized each other up.

The captain wasn't impressed. A scrawny little runt in a lab coat, almost no visible muscle whatsoever, and wearing glasses. He was one of those sciency types. Even though he had no extra men to spare, he had his doubts about this. Whatever. With any luck, the Pokegirl he dragged along with him would be able to keep his hide intact though.

Sylvas, on the other hand, only looked like he wasn't impressed. That was a huge pile of paperwork! This guy must be important... oh right, the guy. Turning his attention back to the captain, he noted that he was somewhat heavyset, although it was obvious that there was muscle beneath. Also, he seemed to be balding, and was wearing a fierce glower on his face. Probably not someone to mess with.

"My name is Genryu Saotome... And I'm volunteering you to join our unit, under my command. You can sign your agreement to do so here, or I can put a bullet between your eyes. Your choice."

Sylvas sweatdropped and reached for a pen.

xxx

A.N. I'm sorry, I just had to do it. The idea haunted me until I gave in and began typing. Maybe now that I have the first chapter finished, I can get back to work on something else.

Anyway, to those that haven't realized it yet, yes this is an SI. I'M SORRY! Mostly this is just written for amusement, but I'll do my best to keep it from spiraling down into a pit of suckage. It helps that this is set much closer to the end of the end of the world as we know it than most other Pokegirl fics out there.

Anyway, just like Zombies Harem, I'll be posting the uncut chapters at A-kun's Pokegirl World Project, so head over there when it gets to the dirty bits. Or not, because they aren't really integral to the plot.


	2. Chapter 2

A Reaper's Vacation

xxx

Sylvas fought to control the burgeoning yawn within him as Genryu introduced him to his men. And their Pokegirls. That was about the only interesting thing about this whole round of introductions, the fact that they had shebeasts of their own on their side. Granted, most of them didn't seem capable of talking much beyond the occassional grunt, growl, or muttering the name of their 'Type', but it was a novel experience anyway.

But frankly, after he was introduced to Genryu's Amachoke, Grey (after her skin), and his Kitten, Tasha, the experience got a lot less interesting. Basically, the only important people were the ones who had at least one Pokegirl partner. The rest were all pretty much grunts who just provided fire support.

So aside from the captain, there was Simmons the sniper and his partner, a nameless Fairycute that spent most of her time either flitting around his head, sitting on his shoulders, or napping in a nest of his hair. Given that Simmons was a grizzled, scarfaced man with at least three weeks worth of facial growth, this presented an odd picture.

Then there was Jack, heavy weapons and munitions. Basically the guy to go to if you needed stuff to make something go boom. His partner, a Nymph named Jess, didn't seem to quite match up either, but given that she seemed more interested with snuggling with Jack than saying or doing anything else, it probably didn't matter.

Then there was Sam. Or rather, Samantha, but she only responded to Sam. His brain had nearly fried when he and the captain had walked in on her, shirtless, necking with a blue-skinned girl with tentacles. A Titacruel, apparently. He'd completely missed what the Titacruel's name was, and what Samantha actually did for the unit, because he'd had to reboot his brain when he realized that two of those tentacles were somewhere in Sam's shorts, and it looked like a third one was about to join them.

By the time his brain was working again, they were in the hall and long since away from Sam's quarters.

"... In any case, lad, you have to understand what Pokegirl's _are_ to survive in this world. They're weapons, plain and simple, created by a mad scientist to take over the world or something like that. Sukebe came damned close to it too. Try to wander the wilderness without a Pokegirl partner or two of your own, and you're just going to end up dead unless you're really lucky. You've seen that for yourself."

Sylvas got the feeling that this was the point where he should nod to give the impression that he was paying attention and understood, and so did.

"The thing is, gun's are pretty much useless against most of them unless you're using the biggest kind out there, and even then only if you're using armor piercing rounds, the kind that can put a hole through a tank. Even then, if the Pokegirl _knows_ the bullet is coming, it rarely matters how large it is because like as not, she's going to dodge it anyway. Simmons told me about your little run through the town yesterday... seems to me like that alone used up at least a lifetime and a half's worth of luck."

Genryu paused a moment, then sighed.

"Under other circumstances, I wouldn't have drafted you into our little battle, but we're far too shorthanded to expect to survive much longer without help. I'm going to have to send you out there to gather supplies from the nearby town. I'm not sure what buildings have power running and which don't, but there's sure to be canned food in some of the houses, and I'm pretty sure that there was a grocery store somewhere in there. Most everything else will likely have been scavenged by the ferals, but canned food and bottled water would be a good bet, you should try to scavenge whatever weapons and ammunition you can find, and with luck you might find a car in reasonable condition to help haul it back."

At this point, Sylvas finally grasped what the captain was saying and his eyes widened.

"Hey... wait... weren't you just saying something about how _incredibly dangerous_ it is out there, and now you want to send me back out there alone?"

"Hm? Oh no... not alone."

He swung the door he was standing next to open.

"You'll be partnered with her."

He looked in the room. She looked out. A chain clinked as they both raised a hand to point at each other.

"YOU!"

Then Sylvas paused, blinked, then cocked his head lightly to the side.

"Wait... I don't recognize you. Have we met?"

A long silence fell, then Genryu coughed.

"She, uh, just put a three inch long, inch wide hole in your chest a couple hours ago. You... really didn't recognize her?"

Sylvas stroked his beard for a moment, lost in thought. Then his eyes widened and he snapped his fingers.

"OH... right. I'd completely forgotten about that... and she was behind me, so I kinda never saw her face."

"... You're giving me to _him_? You can't just... I dunno... kill me now, maybe?"

Genryu shrugged and stepped out the door, tossing a key at Sylvas... who flinched as he missed catching it and it bounced off his head and fell to the floor. He reached down and fumbled after it as Genryu began to close the door.

"That'll open her chains up. I don't suppose you have to tame her immediately, if you can convince her to stick with you otherwise, but it _would_ be a good idea to get around to it as soon as possible."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Genryu nodded and closed the door, completely forgetting that he hadn't yet gotten around to explaining what Taming was to the apparent amnesiac, and so while he was thinking one thing, Sylvas was thinking quite another. Mainly involving tiny chairs and burning hoops.

'But where would I find a three-ring circus at this time of day?'

He shrugged and unlocked the manacle on the girl's left wrist, completely missing the way her eyes widened, first with shock, then with savage glee. She balled her hand into a fist and swung with every ounce of her strength at the idiot's head as he turned to unlock the other wrist.

"Whoops."

And ended up slamming her fist into the stone wall as he dropped the key again and bent over to pick it up. She grit her teeth for a moment, trying to hold it back, but the idiot bumped her arm slightly as he stood back up, sending a throbbing wave of agony all the way up to her shoulder.

xxx

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Captain Genryu Saotome couldn't help but whistle at the piercing cry.

"Damn... he works fast."

"AH-AAH-AAAAAAAAH!! NGYAAA!!"

xxx

"Geez, hold still... wow. That's a mess. I can't believe they didn't notice that when they chained you up. It looks like your knucklebones got smashed somehow. I wonder how that could have happened?"

The Pokegirl sweatropped and winced at the same time, then whimpered as he began poking at her arm.

"Looks like you cracked your wrist too. (Poke.) You'll have to be careful with that. (Poke.) Too much pressure in the wrong position, and that'll break too, and I don't know how long it'll be before we can have the doc take a look at this.(Poke. Poke. Poke.)"

"ALL RIGHT, I GIVE UP, I'LL BEHAVE, JUST STOP POKING THAT!"

Sylvas blinked, then his eyes widened as he realized what he was absentmindedly doing and he jerked his hand away as though scalded.

"Ah... sorry about that... let's get you out of those chains and take you to see the doctor."

This time, the Warrior didn't try to attack him as he released her from her bonds, being too preoccupied with cradling her injured hand to her chest.

xxx

Hojo paused and spun around rapidly as someone entered his domain.

"Vhat do you... Oh. It's you. I vas joking vhen I said I vould haff one of my assistants make you a sandvhich, you know. If ze captain has drafted you, zen ze military cafeteria is..."

Sylvas blinked, then shook his head.

"No, it's not that. It's... well you're a doctor, right? Do you think you could take a look at her hand?"

Hojo arched an eyebrow, apparently only now noticing the female that had followed Sylvas in the door. He grabbed her by ze forearm, ignoring the wince of pain it brought, and inspected the hand closely. Then he shrugged, pulled a small bottle out of a cabinet and handed it to Sylvas.

"Ze damage is relatively minor, though I am unsure how you could have managed to injure her hand zo zeverely during a taming session, yet leaf her uzzervize unscathed. Haff her drink ze potion, and she vill be good as new in five minutes."

Sylvas blinked again, image of a burning hoop once more leaping to the forefront of his mind.

"Nah... I didn't bother with any of that, just let her out of the chains."

A long silence fell between them as Hojo's hand zipped out to clamp down on his before he could pass the potion off to the wounded pokegirl.

"Right, right... I had forgotten about ze amnezia thing. Tell me, did ze Captain Zaotome tell you _exactly_ vhat vas involved in ze Taming processez?"

"Er... I don't see how it matters... isn't it just like what those people in circuses do when they put their heads in the lions m-EEP!"

Hojo lowered his glare and rubbed tiredly at the bridge of his nose. Then he leaned forward and began whispering into Sylvas's ear.

Sylvas's face went white, then red, then white again with wide eyes and a tiny spot of blood hanging from his nostril. In his state of shock, Hojo reclaimed the potion from him.

"Wait a minute... what's the point of _that_! I mean... I mean... doesn't that..."

"I see... you are a virgin, zen."

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING!?"

"Vell, if you vere a _real_ man, zen you vould be jumping out of your pants vith excitement at zuch an opportunity."

"OH! OH YEAH! WELL THEN... wait a moment. No. No, I'm not quite that dumb yet. You'll have to do better than..."

_KLONG-ONG-ONG_

Sylvas's eyes crossed and he staggered a half-step forward.

"lOOk aT ThE PretTY BirDIEs..."

The Warrior caught him before he hit the ground and slung him bodily over her shoulder.

"Let's get this over with so I can get my hand fixed already..."

"Ah. Zere is a spare bedroom down ze hall, second door on ze left. Haff fun."

She snarled impotently at him as she passed.

xxx

"WAAAH!"

"Oh, shut up. You weren't complaining at all ten minutes ago."

"YOU STOLE MY PURITY!"

"Isn't that the females line?"

Sylvas paused to give that due consideration, then shook off logic in favor of pointless whining.

"You RAPED me!"

"You seemed to be enjoying it well enough."

"WAAAAH!"

"Oh, for the love of... you're doing this just to piss me off, aren't you."

Sylvas blinked, the red rims around his eyes and tearstreaks vanishing.

"Wow. You caught on a _hell_ of a lot quicker than I expected."

She grumbled something under her breath and stood up to step out the door, ignoring his look of rising panic.

"Hey, wait, you're not going to... to clean up, or put on some clothes, or your armor before you go out?"

"Nah."

He opened his mouth again, but couldn't think of a viable argument before she'd left the room. Shrugging he plopped back down on the bed... and sat up again almost immediately.

"Wet spot. Ew."

He stood up and began searching for a shower. It didn't take long to find, as there were only three doors and one left out to the hall. The first other he checked was some sort of walk-in closet, so that left only one. Sighing in gratitude for whoever made the floor plans for this place, he stepped out of his clothes and began twisting the knobs until he was enveloped in mist and hot water. Then a pair of slim arms wrapped around his chest.

"Didja miss me, boss-man?"

xxx

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Genryu grunted as he dropped a paper back to the desk.

"I'm not denying the boy his fun, but sooner or later he's going to have to get to work. ...I'll give him another hour... and a half. That should be plenty of time."

xxx

Sylvas was panting heavily as he staggered out of the shower, slumping into a wall and clutching at his chest.

"G-goddamn... you nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Oh. So? We need to get moving, 'Boss'. They aren't going to wait forever for food. Got a plan?"

"Why of course I have a plan! We go to the village, get the food, and come back. The perfect plan."

"That... that's just great. And here I thought _I_ was the dumb one. At least I _can_ think, if I apply myself."

"Eh?"

"The ferals, you retard. What are we going to do when set upon by dozens of angry ferals?"

"Ah... oh. Well, we run for our lives. Duh."

The Warrior's hand was nearly vibrating as she held herself back from belting the idiot.

_'Must not kill... they'll put me down... must not kill... they'll put me down... deeeeeep breaths... in... out... in... out...'_

"Riiight. And you don't actually have any other plans?"

"Well, the 'Scream' and 'Flee' combo package has worked pretty well for me thus far, and I see no reason to abandon it just yet."

Her fist tightened so much that her knuckles cracked loudly.

_'MusT nOt kILl, mUSt Not KilL, MUsT noT kIlL...'_

She spun on her heel and began strapping on her armor.

"Let's just go. With any luck, we'll somehow manage to die painlessly."

"That's the spirit!" Sylvas exclaimed happily, thumbs up with his eyes squinted closed.

"Do... do you have to work at being so stupid, or does it just come naturally?"

"I totally have no idea what you mean!" Sylvas countered, still posing like a retard.

xxx

The Warrior was on her guard as they finally got around to leaving the military complex, flitting through the undergrowth from bit of cover to bit of cover. Sylvas, by contrast... eh, not so much. She yanked him to the ground when she realized that he was just ambling along like he was out for a casual stroll.

"What the hell are you _doing_?" She hissed softly. "You're going to get us both _killed_!"

"Mmphmflmp." He countered eloquently. With more than a slight degree of reluctance, she removed her hand from his mouth.

"As I was saying, I doubt they really expect us to return at all, with or without food. And, given that there are at least a few varieties of she-beasts that can track by scent alone, I doubt it matters how cleverly concealed from sight or quiet we are. There's nothing we can do about leaving a scent trail..."

The Warrior couldn't help but stare. It was a reasonable, well thought out argument despite that it made it seem like Sylvas was resigned to death. It almost made him seem... smart. Naturally, the universe could not let that stand and the next words out of his mouth nullified that.

"... Besides, it would take valuable energy that I'd really prefer to keep in reserve for the 'Fleeing For Our Lives' bit of this little endeavor."

She smacked him lightly in disgust. Of course, considering the differences in strength involved, 'lightly' was still enough to bruise his jaw and nearly give him whiplash.

"Idiot. Now that you've jinxed us, theres no possible way we can get through this undetected."

Her grumbling continued, completely ignored for the most part, until they reached the town limits and Sylvas took a moment to study the map he'd been given.

Of course, he hadn't been given any _weapons_, or been allowed to take one of the armored military vehicles, or even a partially retrofitted civilian vehicle that one of the soldiers had siezed, no. Just the map, good luck, try not to die, there'll be bandages, a sandwich, and a mug of some indefinable fluid waiting for you when you get back. _If_ you get back. If not, we're going to eat your sandwich.

"M'Kay, that pawn shop I got a gun from last time is... way too far away. There's another, only seven blocks that way, and according to this, there's a Wal-Mart about ten blocks north of there. There'll probably be cars in the parking lot, if we're lucky one of them will work. If not... hey, she-beast. How fast can you run while carrying a shopping cart?"

"Uh... not... not fast enough to outrun any but the slowest of pursuers, I'm afraid. And I don't have the stamina to last for more than a minute or two, either... and by that point, any pursuers could catch up easily."

"Riight." Sylvas nodded slowly, in thought. "We'll just bump that from 'Plan B' to 'Absolute Last Resort', then. Now then... what would a good 'Plan B' be?"

The Warrior felt a headache coming on.

"Why not... Why not start by coming up with a half-decent plan 'A'?"

"Oh, those never work. I find it saves a lot of trouble and effort to just skip plan 'A's altogether..." An uncertain look crossed Sylvas' face. "I... uh... I think. I could be wrong..." He shook it off. "Eh, whatever. Either we pull this off, or we die. No real point putting it off, then."

He darted into town, sacrificing all appearance of stealth in favor of moving as fast as he could, probably in the hopes of covering as much ground as he could before the she-beasts he knew full well were in town noticed he was there and started chasing him. If so... he failed. Pokegirls started swarming out of ruined houses and filling the skies the moment he left cover, howling for his blood.

The Warrior stared wide-eyed for a moment at the display before she rushed into and through the fray herself.

"YOU IDIIOOT!" She howled, sprinting up beside Sylvas, well ahead of the horde behind them that was pacing themselves, waiting for them to tire before they attacked. "You wanna die or something?"

"First stop, weapons!" He said aloud, completely ignoring her commentary. "Then, while I grab foodstuffs, you can see if there's a car that isn't damaged too badly and will actually start so you can come rescue me!"

"That's your plan? We're going to die."

"Don't be so negative... Here we are."

Sylvas kicked the door open, darting inside and slamming it after the Warrior and quickly tipping a nearby set of shelves in front of it.

"Ah... that'll buy us a few seconds, at least. 'Kay... guns, knives... crossbow? Neat, but pretty usele- oh! I see, the arrowhead extends into a grappling hook, and there's a cord... I want that, and that, and that... but I can't carry it all_ and_ food. Cruel fate! Oh well... I'll just come back later. Oh, gasoline! I'll take a couple of cans..."

He was interrupted by a large thump of something slamming into the door. It came again a moment later and was followed by the scrabbling of claws. The Warrior, having caught her breath, smashed open a display case and ignored the sudden blaring alarm as she began sorting through the swords.

"Dull... poor quality... warp in the metal... for crying out loud, who makes swords without edges?"

"Wait wait wait..." Sylvas interrupted, ignoring the fact that she was ignoring him in her efforts to find a decent blade. "Why did an alarm sound there, but nothing happened when I broke the gun case at the other place?"

"Silent alarm." She grunted as she finally selected one and gave it a test swing.

"Oh. That makes sense."

A clawed fist slammed through the door, scrabbling wildly around as though its owner expected that one of them would have just stayed within reach. The Warrior stabbed it with the ornamental longsword she'd found. A high pitched screech and small spurt of blood later, it withdrew, and the sounds outside seemed to indicate that the horde was milling about and looking for the weakest point of defense.

"Eh, this thing is really more form than function, but it'll do for now. It has an edge, at least, and that's all I need for my techniques. Could do with a shield, but that's just wishful thinking."

Sylvas tossed her a pot lid.

"I... you... screw it. Grab whatever you want boss-man, and let's get the hell out of here."

xxx

Simmons felt a profound sense of Deja Vu as he stared through his binoculars at the scene playing out before him.

"Uh... Captain?"

Genryu sighed.

"No, don't tell me, let me guess. I can see them swarming from here, like a disturbed antpile... Is he still alive?"

"Yeah, Captain. He, uh... he's jumping between rooftops again. He's doing better this time though, and his 'girl has a sword now."

"I see..."

"He's, uh... He's laughing, sir. Either he's really enjoying himself or he's gone hysterical with terror. Suppressive fire?"

Genryu considered for a long moment.

"... No. Let him get himself out of his mess this time. He's got to learn that he can't just fly off half-cocked, or it stirs up trouble... like that. If he survives, fine. If not, then it's no big loss at this point."

xxx

"HAHAHAHA! My legs are burning!"

"You shouldn't have grabbed so much crap!" The warrior yelled back at Sylvas as she made a half-turn and swung at the level of his throat. He dived beneath the swing and it swatted a leaping shebeast aside and off the roof as he turned and fired a bullet at the flier that had begun a dive at the Warrior's exposed back. It squawked and turned away, flapping back up into the sky, and they both kept running.

"I know... but there was so much cool stuff in there!"

"Idiot."

They jumped to the next roof, Sylvas staggering lightly for the first few steps afterwards.

"Haa... Haa... Hey, I just realized. I don't even know your name."

"Don't have one." The warrior shot back, darting ahead to swat a pair of vaguely feline she-beasts out of the way before falling back to Sylvas's side.

"Well..." He grunted as he made another difficult jump that the Warrior took as though she was hopping over a puddle. ".. Surely you were called _something_ at some point."

"... W-13-25-15-07."

"Eh... what now? That sounds like a registration code..."

"It is. I'm the thirteenth warrior from the twenty fifth set of fifteen from outpost seven."

"That's... that's a mouthful."

They were both silent as they took the next jump off the short building entirely and Sylvas winced as something in his hip shifted marginally.

"So... how do you feel about 'Wendy'?"

"I hate it."

"Oh... How about 'Jill'? Or 'Jennifer'?"

"Hate them."

"How about-"

"Hate."

"But-"

"Hate."

"I didn't even-"

"Hate."

"..."

"We're almost there, boss-man. Uh... try not to die before I can make pickup, okay?"

"Sure thing, Cecilia!"

"I- You- Dah!" She growled out as he darted through the parking lot and dived, shoulder first, through the sliding glass doors that, without power in this area, weren't sliding.

She growled again, this time wordlessly, and scanned what cars were in the lot before turning to run to the nearest residential blocks. The cars in the lot were all bad.. damaged in some way or another, with their tires slashed or ruptured, or having been smashed or slashed with something. One had the remains of some poor shmuck slammed through it's sunroof. They were all at least somewhat damaged from prolonged exposure to the elements, several so bad that they were rusting holes through the doors.

No, none of them would do. Better to look in garages, where at least whatever cars might be there would have been protected from nature.

It was a short, but still unacceptably long time later that Cecilia carved open a garage door and actually found something inside. Granted, it wasn't a car. Still, the motorcycle inside had two seats, and would be much more maneuverable than a car would, now that she paused a moment to think about it. And as civilian vehicles couldn't hope to stand up to most Pokegirl attacks, the only option was dodging them.

The deciding factor, of course, was that the keys were in the motorcycle's ignition, and it had a full tank of gas.

She was back at the store and pulling to a stop in moments, oddly not being hunted by any ferals. It was creepy, actually. She knew they were there, and if they weren't chasing her then that meant...

Sylvas interrupted her thought processes by screaming at the top of his lungs and leaping off the building, spinning and swinging two large garbage sacks that looked stuffed full of cans of some sort around him like helicopter blades to fend of the Pokegirls that were leaping after him. Cecilia's eyes widened and she cursed under her breath as she slammed the gas to bring the motorcycle into motion, spinning as she braked just beneath him. He landed on the second seat, facing backwards and eyes crossing from the impact, and she slammed on the gas again.

"Nice... nice timing... Cecilia..." Sylvas managed to whimper out in a significantly higher pitch than normal. She ignored him as they sped off.

"So, I assume by the way your jaw is hanging somewhere about your knees that they've survived." Genryu stated, and Simmons snapped his mouth shut with a click.

"Sir... those two are either incredibly good at this sort of thing, completely and suicidally insane, horrifically lucky, or some twisted combination of the three."

"Then they are alive."

"And coming in with supplies, sir. Though... given all the running they've done, they're gonna be tired, and he ain't doing no taming until he's had the doctor take a look at his bits and pieces."

Genryu winced sympathetically.

Sure enough, they arrived shortly after that, and Sylvas made it perhaps two bowlegged steps off the bike before passing out, and would have hit the ground if Cecilia hadn't snagged him by the collar of his lab coat, herself wobbling slightly from fatigue. Genryu quickly barked orders, sending Sam and two nameless flunkies to escort the pair to Hojo, and a third flunky to take inventory of the loot and have it properly stored.

"That worked out well." He decided. "Better than I expected from a sciency-type, anyway. Speaking of which... when he gets up, let him use a lab. See what he does. Could be that even without memories, he's more useful to us there."

xxx

Sylvas groaned as he forced his body to move.

"Oh... oh god, what did I do yester-GAH!"

Hojo's leering face had suddenly popped up in front of him.

"Holy crap... that's a hell of an awful way to wake... wait." He stared down his blanket to where there was a large bag of ice sitting over his hips. "What... what the hell?"

"Unfortunately, yez was severely damaged, see." Said Hojo, in a very un-Hojo-ish accent. "Looks loik yer testicles has done a runner."

"GAAAAAH!" Sylvas screamed, sitting upright in his bed, in a cold sweat and panting for breath.

"Vat iz ze problem?" Hojo asked as he stepped into the room, reading off a clipboard.

"I... nothing. Just a..."

He paused and his eyes tracked down to his hips, where a large sack of ice was sitting, and he completely freaked out.

"Oh! Oh! Oh shit! The dream was real, they... they're gone!"

Hojo casually whacked him in the head.

"Shut up, idiot. Zey are still zere, and intact. Ze ting is, ze impact pushed zem up into your body cavities, and ve had to surgically move zem back to zey're proper position. Ve gave you a healing draft aftervards, and you vill be in perfect vorking conditions in a few hours, once ze svelling has gone down."

"Oh... oh that's good... for a moment, I thought..."

"I know vhat you thought. Now zen, your Varrior-"

"Cecilia."

"-ya, ya, she iz resting in ze next room over. Vhen you vake up, I advise you go to check on her."

"When I-?"

Hojo sprayed some mixture of chemicals in Sylvas' face and he was out and snoring before his head hit the pillow.

xxx

A shadowy female figure slammed a small knife through a photograph, visibly seething.

"This person..." She growled. "I don't know who he is, but chaos follows wherever he goes. He's playing havoc with our efforts to reclaim to local Feral population... just when they'd begun settling down, he comes back and whips them up into an even greater frenzy than before. Zan!"

A Kunoichi appeared, kneeling before her, in a slight puff of smoke.

"Yes, Mistress?"

"I want to know everything there is to know about this person. Our full resources are at your disposal, do whatever it takes."

"Of course, Mistress."

Zan poofed away, and the Mistress stared at the photo for a few moments before pulling the knife out and stabbing it again.

"Master Sukebe is gone, but his will lives on through me. I am the commander of this remainder of his forces, and I will continue to destroy all human military outposts, as ordered, until none remain. You will regret interfering in my duty..."

xxx

A.N. Cliffhanger! Dah!

Took a lot longer than expected to finish this chapter. Stupid short attention span...

I had all sorts of things I wanted to say here, but I can't remember any of it at the moment... Hnn. Well in any case, I've set up an opponent for my avatar. She has an entire army of highly trained and deadly femmes behind her. He has... a few nifty toys and a Warrior that'll probably try to kill him again herself at some point.

I'm liking those odds. Die, me, die!


	3. Chapter 3

"I vant zat valking dizazter _out_ of my labs!" Hojo hissed menacingly to Genryu just a week after Sylvas was given opportunity and leave to work in them.

Genryu just grunted and motioned the sleep-deprived scientist to continue.

"He iz like a madman! Zometimez focusink vith admirable dedication upon one thing for hours at a time, at ozzers he flitz about like a confused bumblebee. Aside from zat, most of ze things he vorks on have no practical use whatsoever, and ze rest blow up in hiz face!"

There was a muffled boom from nearby, which Hojo quickly siezed upon to make his point.

"Like zat! God only knows vat ze man haz done now. If you vill excuze me, I must go to clean up ze mess."

Genryu nodded somberly.

xxx

Reaper's Vacation

xxx

His entire being was focused on the eyedropper in his hand. The chemical within was extremely volatile, and the compound he was creating needed one drop, _only_ one, or the reactions would accelerate too fat, resulting in-

"Hey boss!" Cecilia called into the room, shattering his concentration as he unconcsiously squished the dropper and squirted all of the chemical into the compound.

-Catastrophe.

He didn't even bother to answer as he let go and spun and leapt in the same motion, tackling _that blasted shebeast_ out of the door and continuing to the ground, where he hurled himself and her to the side and away from the opening.

There was a long moment of silence.

"You know, it's not that I don't appreciate it, but usually you aren't anywhere near so happy to see me."

"Uh... huh." Sylvas mumbled, before standing up and dusting his coat off. "That's odd... unless I miscalculated, that should have-"

There was a dull, booming FWOOMPH as the compound in the lab exploded into white-hot flame, licking its way rapidly outside the open door.

"Ah, there it is. Cecilia, I think it would probably be prudent for us to leave now."

She mumbled something about 'nuts' under her breath as Sylvas quickly made good his exit in an attempt to establish an alibi, despite the fact that everyone made a point of knowing exactly where he was and what he was doing at all times after the first explosion had occurred. She sighed and left.

Shortly afterward, a badly singed and smoking kunoichi followed, with a limp, and her concealing garb bearing a very great deal of recent damage.

"Mistress...." She whined softly. "I don't think I can take this for much longer... the target is too formidable. I can only hope you will be pleased and reward me when I return, Mistress."

xxx

Once they'd found him and dragged him to Genryu's office, the meeting was quick. Genryu let him know that he'd changed his mind, Sylvas was hereby banned forever from access to Hojo's labs under any circumstances and volatile chemicals save in truly,_ truly_ dire emergencies. The direness to be determined _not_ by Sylvas, but by Genryu himself or whatever superior officer happened to be on hand at the time.

Winding down to a close, he withdrew a folder from his desk.

"Now that that unpleasantness is dealt with, I have a job for you. There has been some recent activity here." He set out a map and made a mark. "We need to scout it out, to determine its exact nature. It could be nothing, or it could be massing forces preparing to-"

"Um-" Sylvas interjected hesitantly. "You've probabably noticed this, but... I'm not exactly sneaky. I'm kind of exactly the opposite of sneaky, in fact..."

He trailed off in the face of Genryu's glower.

"Do. Not. Interrupt. Me. Continuing on, I'm well aware of your shortcomings, which is why you are not going here." He poked at the mark, then moved his hand over to the river and circled a spot. "Instead, you will be going here, to this hydro-electrical facility. It doesn't connect to our compounds, and we've already swept it for survivors, so there's nothing important there. Your job is to attract the ferals, kick up a fuss, and focus everyone else's attention on you while the team already en route to the danger zone do their job."

There was a long moment of silence as Sylvas considered that.

"Sir... no offense, but aren't you using me like a sacrificial chess piece here?"

"You may requisition a sidearm and two clips of ammo from the armory. Aside from that you'll have to fend for yourself, but I have faith in your resourcefulness."

"Sir, you didn't answer my question."

"You may also use the civilian vehicle you acquired last week. I have sent orders to have its gas tank filled and it should be waiting for you near the gates."

"Sir?" Cecilia grabbed him by the back of the coller and slowly dragged Sylvas out of the room. "Sir? Sir!"

The door closed, leaving Sylvas staring at the map that had been stuffed in his hands at some point.

"Well... crap. We're going to die, aren't we?"

"What happened to the optimism, Boss?"

"That comes during the job itself. I find... think I find..." He hesitated. "It should help, anyway, to get the pessimism out of the way beforehand. Probably."

Cecilia shrugged.

"Should know boss, if it looks hopeless I'm going to kill you myself."

".......And thereby spare me the pain of being torn to bits, alive, for sustenance by rabid she-beasts." Sylvas mused. "That's actually very kind of you! Thanks!"

Cecilia just grunted softly, irritated. Truthfully, Sylvas' reasoning had played a small part in the decision, but a much larger part was the pragmatic fact that if he was dead then she could simply toss his carcass to the wolves, so to speak, thereby creating an opportunity to escape herself. The majority would be, of course, the simple satisfaction of killing him with her own hands.

"Go and pick up your weapon. I'll wait by the bike."

He didn't get there until minutes later, a handgun uncomfortably holstered beneath his labcoat.

"Well... no point putting it off."

xxx

Simmons frowned as he peered through the scope of his rifle. At first, things had seemed catastrophic here... there was a whole swarm of those Pokegirls modeled off of hornets nesting here, and the teams arrival had coincided with a couple of pokegirls wearing a uniform... which pretty much amounted to an ornamented hat.

Fortunately, whatever negotiations they were there for hadn't gone at all well. Minutes into the discussion, the drone they'd been speaking with drove its stinger into the stomach of one of the, for lack of a better word, diplomats. The ensuing battle had left one leaving the scene at full speed and the other cooling on the ground as the Wasps tore into its flesh.

So they'd already gathered some information, without having to do much of anything. If those diplomats were wearing a uniform, then obviously they had a leader. If there was a leader, then it followed that that leader was massing forces. Genryu's paranoia had been proven correct. On the plus side, apparently the offer for an alliance with this wild hive had been violently opposed, so rather than being catastrophic, this nest's existence was merely a bad thing.

"Quick strike, then full withdraw to the vehicle and retreat. Shrapnel grenade to the ones that are feeding, napalm to the main nest, then limited covering fire for the retreat. Go, go, go."

Inwardly he was grumbling. Personally, he liked the mad scientist that Sylvas had proven himself to be, and given the low levels of risk this mission had shown so far he didn't believe it had been neccessary for a distraction mission to be run.

Still, the man had to earn his keep somehow, and it was Genryu's decision as to how.

Meanwhile, Sylvas and Cecilia had just arrived at the dam.

"So... what now?" Sylvas wondered aloud.

Cecilia frowned and checked to make sure that her ornamental sword was loose in its sheath as she stared at the nearby buildings. Then she dropped to her knees and dragged Sylvas along with her with a soft 'gluh?'.

"Whu-? Buh-? Huh?"

"Shut up, moron!" She hissed. "Find some cover, I saw movement through the windows."

Sylvas didn't answer, instead toppling slowly over, a few drops of blood splashing away from his head. Cecilia whirled around, just in time to see a big, stony fist swing in to her face.

When she came to, she was locked in a room somewhere inside the facility, behind a heavy looking door.

"Great. Like the one time wasn't enough." She grumbled, then winced as her face throbbed. "If my nose is broken, that stone bitch is dead. I _will_ find a way to make it happen. So help me..." She took several deep breaths before reaching slowly for her face.

Her nose was bent. After spending a few moments coming to terms with this, she gripped it firmly and wrenched it back to its proper position.

"GAAGH! Agh! Gah! Dead... that bitch is dead! I'll grind her down to fucking _dust_-"

"Cecilia? That you?"

"You're alive?" She paused and groaned. "Of course you're alive. Your being dead would make things far too easy. Where are you then?"

"I have no idea! I'm blindfolded, you see. Also, I'm bound with something in a very uncomfortable position, naked, I think I've been drugged, and every so often someone comes in and, if I understand the context correctly, uses me to stave off Ferality."

"Oh." Cecilia said, not having expected the wealth of information. "That's... nice."

"It is!" He agreed from wherever he was. "Because if there wasn't the Feral element to consider, they would just be raping me, and that would be horrible."

"Or, you know, they could have slaughtered and eaten you already."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Well yeah, but I was trying not to think of that possibility." He admitted, then continued on quickly. "The last visitor just left, so I think we have roughly half an hour until the next one. Do you think you can make a plan to escape?"

"Me? It would only take a mir... acle..." She slowed down as her attention was suddenly drawn to the fact that the hinges were on the inside of the door to her makeshift cell.

"Alright, that could be the start of a plan." She admitted softly. She focused, and a sword appeared in her hand. Not a great sword, but it should do the job. The trick would be finding the right angle.

She swung, and the majority of the first hinge fell to the ground. A couple more swings and the rest of it was gone... and the sword she'd manifested had cracked. She tossed it to the side and created a new one.

All told, it took nearly half a dozen swords before hinges had been dealt with and she could muscle the thing out of its frame and step into the hallway beyond.

"Okay, I'm out. Now what?"

"Oh, am I making the plan now?" Sylvas answered. "Because it's kind of difficult to do when you can't see."

"Shut up!" Cecilia barked, clearly on her last nerve, before regaining control of herself. "Okay... sounds like your behind... this door. Give me a minute to break it down-"

"Actually, I didn't hear it lock the last few times so it should be open."

She paused and tested the handle. Sure enough, it opened smoothly... and then her brain caught up to the statement.

"Wait... 'last few'? How many..."

"You've been out for _hours_." Sylvas quickly explained, sensing unpleasantness ahead. "Not sure how long actually, but my hands and feet started to go completely numb awhile back."

She grunted and stepped into the room, not missing a beat as she created a sword from nothing and swung it down at the rope tying his feet to the table. To absolutely no effect.

"Wha-... oh. Well crap."

"What now?"

"These ropes... looks like they're made from spiderwoman silk. That's going to take a bit of cutting. Maybe I should just try to untie them?"

"No time for that. Can you make something with a serrated edge?"

"Eh... maybe. Why?"

"Look, just do it."

She restrained herself from just stabbing him and did so.

"Okay, done. Was there a point to this excersize, or-"

"Saw at the rope with the serrated edge."

Cecilia blinked very slowly, glancing between the rope and the sword.

"Oh."

"And if you don't mind, could you get the ones binding my hands first?"

She grunted and got to it. It still took a bit of effort, but severing the rope was much easier and it wasn't long before Sylvas could sit up, tug the blindfold off, and rub at his wrists.

Then the door swung open.

In a blur of adrenaline fed motion Cecilia turned and lunged, grabbing the girl on the other side and yanking her in before slamming her into the wall and clicking the door closed.

"Don't kill her!" came a quick order.

"Y-yeah, don't kill me!" came an instant rasped agreement from the girl.

Cecilia answered by squeezing slightly before she let her drop to the ground, choking and taking big, deep gasps of air.

"Why not?"

"Do _you_ know the way out of here?" Sylvas countered.

She hated to admit it, but that was a very good point.

"Fine." She grunted. "Hear that, girl? You get to live... for now."

"Thank you." She whimpered, then straitened up and jumped back, obviously more confident. "Or rather, that's what I _would_ say, if you hadn't given me the chance to prepare a spell! F-"

Sylvas brought the flat of the discarded sword into the girl's head, creating an opening for Cecilia to lunge forward and pin an arm behind the girl's back.

"OWOWOWOWOW! Lemme go, you human's pet!"

"Magic-user." She growled. "I _hate_ dealing with magic users. Are you _sure_ I can't kill her?"

Sylvas took a moment to consider the proposal as, to be perfectly honest, it might be easier and less annoying to work out the way out on their own. Then the little magic-user turned to him, big sorrowful eyes wide and brimming with tears as she chewed delicately at her bottom lip. It was an obvious ploy.... and it was just as obviously working, steadily and rapidly chipping away at him.

"...uh..." He forcefully shook his head. "No. Not unless she tries something."

Cecilia growled deeply as she leaned close to the girl's ear.

"_Please_ try something. I'm looking forward to it."

xxx

After a quick round of questioning, they'd determined that the girl was a Witch, her only useful spell of the moment was the simple flame cantrip she'd attempted to use on Cecilia, she'd been attempting to slip in for a 'quickie' before anyone noticed she was away from her post, there was some sort of operation going on in the dam, the leaders weren't planning on executing Sylvas immediately, but judging on the planned schedule they'd drawn up for him, it was more than possible that he would have died of exhaustion at some point.

Or dehydration.

She was somewhat more reticent on just what, exactly, the plan for the dam was. At least, until Sylvas pondered aloud the possibility of him stepping outside and letting Cecilia ask the questions. All of a sudden, at that point, she became a great deal more cooperative and chatty.

Apparently, they were using the electricity generated by the dam to power a device that transported little spheres in between two places instantly, and those spheres could somehow contain a pokegirl for transport, thus allowing them to quietly build up a hidden strike force with nobody the wiser.

And then she attempted to 'demonstrate' the use of the little sphere thingy on Cecilia, who reacted by cleaving it in half, and everything got really tense for a few moments before Sylvas finally got around to tying the girl's arms behind her back and gagging her.

"Now I think our course from here is clear." He decided.

"We sneak back and report to the big guy?"

"Yes.... no. No, obviously our course of action is Sabotage. I have two stoppered vials in my lab coat that should do the trick nicely."

"Ugh.... Okay boss, first off that doesn't help us much, because we don't know where your coat is. Second, didn't the big guy only just get through ordering you to stop playing with chemicals."

"Details. Besides, I'm sure our little witch here will be happy to show us to whatever room they have our effects in. _Won't_ you?"

She nodded very rapidly.

"Good, good. Let's be off then."

Cecilia rubbed at her temples as Sylvas sauntered out of the room, still naked as a jaybird, with the rope attached to the witch firmly in hand.

"Right. We really are going to die this time."

xxx

Fortunately, however, they managed to avoid all the guard patrols. Mainly because the Witch had them memorized. Even so, it wouldn't be long at all before they were missed, or rather that Sylvas specifically was. Somehow, Cecilia doubted that they would care about a 'failed breed' such as herself except that she came part and parcel with a human that could be used to stave off Feral state and keep them working at full efficiency.

And as expected, it was barely ten minutes after they'd gotten their weapons and Sylvas' clothes back from the closet they'd been haphazardly tossed in that an alarm started blaring.

On the other hand, that meant that the guards around the large device quickly turned it off and rushed away, leaving it completely to Sylvas' tender mercies.

And he had none. He didn't have the time to take everything completely apart and suss out how it worked, of course, but destroying it was something he could do in a matter of moments, leaving it a disgusting heap of wreckage as the combined chemicals forced the metal portions to rust away at an accelerated rate, the plastic ones to melt, and the rest to just generally disintegrate slowly.

Then he quickly stuffed a few of the empty little spheres in his pockets for later study as they left the scene of the crime.

After that, it became somewhat more difficult to dodge patrols, and they had to frequently backtrack and make unfortunate detours to avoid unwanted confrontations. In the end, they had to move for another exit, at the top of the dam rather than down near the base.

And almost ran smack into one of the ambushes that had apparrently been set up around every exit. That would almost definitely have been a problem, as Sylvas was out of chemicals.

Fortunately, he still had a brick of C4 that he had requisitioned from the armory. Although it had been less 'requisitioned' and more 'quietly stolen while people were looking elsewhere'.

In the end, he reflected as the wall blasted outward, followed by the three on a motorcycle taking the downhill slope at a dangerous angle and speed, the most difficult part of the endeavor had been finding the thing and wheeling it up all those stairs without being noticed.

xxx

Shortly afterward, Zan eyed the devastation that had been left behind, wincing softly as huge cracks steadily spiderwebbed outward from the relatively small hole that had, it seemed, been blasted through a key stress point keeping the construction stable.

She quickly calculated and realized that at the current rate of destruction, there would be approximated two more hours before it was weakened enough for water to begin seeping through, after which it would be half an hour, an hour at best, before the whole thing came down in a flood of cement and water.

This site was well and truly done for, she decided, launching a smoke bomb into the air to signal a retreat to the many awe- and horror-struck pokegirls clustered in the valley below the dam. It did the trick of snapping them out of whatever daze they'd been stuck in, and panic ensued as they all rushed to be out of the way of the tsunami that was shortly to happen.

Incidentally, when it _did_ happen, the rushing wall of water continued far enough that it not only destroyed a completely different outpost miles away from the dam, but also quite effectively broke up a large group of pokegirls that had been preparing to make an assault on an outpost of human survivors even further down. All completely unintentional, but when the incident was reviewed every last bit of blame would be set firmly at Sylvas' door.

Completely aside from that, Zan now had to report that the human had captured one of their soldiers, and while she probably didn't have any useful intelligence to be extracted the standard operating procedure meant that they would have to completely overhaul and rework everything they were currently doing.

No, the mistress was not going to be at all pleased with this report, the downtrodden Kunoichi decided. The only good point was that the man was _almost_ as destructive to his allies as he was to his enemies. Well... not almost, she decided as a large chunk of dam crumbled off. Still, he was pretty damaging, no matter what the situation. It seemed that the only difference was that he was actively _trying_ to cause mayhem to his opponents.

She turned and began her way back to her mistress' side, where her report would be carefully reviewed and the man's threat rating would rise a couple notches, from 'detain' to 'detain if possible, but if not then kill on sight'.

Zan did not doubt that it wouldn't be too terribly long before he was upgraded to 'exterminate on sight with extreme prejudice' and mistress broke out the death squads.

xxx

"I.... I feel so filthy." Sylvas whimpered to himself _much_ later, after they'd made it back to base and he'd been ordered to 'acquaint' himself with his new 'friend'.

"How so, Boss?" Asked Cecilia, who was herself much more satisfied with the situation.

"How? Just look at her. There's no _way_ she's eighteen! I feel like a degenerate old man who gets excited over little girls."

The witch frowned at him from her prone and exhausted position.

"For your information, master, I'll be bigger when I evolve."

"And I'm sure that would reassure me greatly if I had any idea what you meant by that." He shot back.

Cecilia took a moment to explain the concept of pokegirl evolution to him.

"_That_ made absolutely no sense and utterly destroys everything I know about practical biology." He complained.

"Not my problem. And aside from that, I'm sure she's of a proper age."

Sylvas glared frostily at them both.

"Oh get over it. If it helps, I had to hold you down and she did all the work... speaking of which, I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop making me hold you down when we do this sort of thing."

"Duly noted." He grumbled.

"And she was good enough to wear the hat." Cecilia continued. "You seemed to really like the hat, for some reason."

Sylvas' eyes glazed for a moment before he shook it off.

"No matter how nice the hat is, it doesn't stop me from feeling like a degenerate pervert." He paused for a moment to consider that statement. "In fact, it's really more of the opposite, considering just how much the thing effects me. Well cra-."

As he was talking, he hadn't noticed the witch slowly getting up from the bed and grabbing a rag until she reached around and stuffed it in his mouth, then caught his arms behind his back.

"Now, master. I think miss Cecilia wants her turn."

He answered with a bunch of muffled obscenities.

"Don't be like that.... tell you what. I'll let her wear the hat."

xxx

A.N. A sight shorter than previous chapters, I'm afraid. Couldn't be helped really, that was just the perfect place to stop. If it makes up for it in any way, here's a few dex notes on important breeds.

**Warrior**

**Type**: Very Near Human  
**Element**: Steel(?)/Fighting(?)  
**Frequency**: Extinct  
**Diet**: Unknown  
**Role**: Guerilla troops  
**Libido**: Unknown  
**Strong Vs**: Ice, Rock, Dark, Normal, Steel, Poison  
**Weak Vs**: Fire, Flying, Psychic  
**Attacks**: Unknown  
**Enhancements**: Ability to create weapons (swords), ability to grow stronger with relationships, hardened skin, natural martial talent  
**Evolves**: None  
**Evolves From**: None

The Warrior race is one of the many that briefly popped up during the Sukebe War and was only discovered through intensive study of the past. It is believed that this breed may have been the predecessor to the Ronin and the Slicer, as well as many of the non-amazon based fighting Pokégirls.

Records show that intelligence was not high amongst this particular breed, as the last one wound up being exterminated just shortly before Kary the Volcano Mistress died.

However, study in Vale has also shown that this breed was one of the two primary elements to the War Esper breed. Their ability to become more powerful (and gain more abilities) as they began relationships with others was no doubt one of the primary reasons behind the awesome might that the War Espers were known for.

It has been discovered by Vale that Artemis, an infamous Pokégirl general, and lover to Athena, that operated in the former southern United States of America and Mexico, was of this species.

**Witch**

**Type**: Very Near Human**  
Element**: Magic**  
Frequency**: Uncommon (Most of the world), Very Rare (Edo League)**  
Diet**: Human-style**  
Role**: Amateur magic-users**  
Libido**: Average mainly, gets High when they're excited**  
Strong Vs**: Ghost, Fighting**  
Weak Vs**: Psychic, Magic, Water, Fire**  
Special Weakness**: Ticklish, green-skinned witches have severe water allergy**  
Attacks**: Spellwork, Witch's Curse, Barrier, Aura Barrier, Mystic Bolt, Mana Bolt, Power Bolt, Reflect**  
Enhancements**: Magical Affinity**  
Evolves**: Sorceress (normal), Enchantress (Moon Stone), Elementalist (Angel Stone, Dark Stone, Diamond Stone, Fire Stone, Heavy Metal, Ice Crystal, Leaf Stone, Mana Crystal, Psi Crystal, Thunder Stone, Venom Stone or Water Stone), Tick-Tock (Dream Stone)**  
Evolves From**: None

Witches are how almost every magic-user Pokégirl starts out. They can use only low level spells and Magic Techniques, but they are generally useful for those wanting to start out with magic Pokégirls. Witches are low in all-around power, but they are usually attuned to a particular sort of magic. They have little in the way of magical strength but can usually be counted on to have some minor tricks that make them useful in day-to-day affairs.

This is not to say that there are not risks in having a Witch Pokégirl.

Witches tend to be extreme in everything. Whether it's being pissed, battling, or Taming, they go at it with gusto and THEN SOME, encouraging their Tamer and Harem sisters to do the same. Most Tamers tend to want a more mild-mannered girl, but the growing few able to cope, though, find witches to be very useful, their powers capable of defeating Pokégirls that most would consider to be out of their weight class. Because of their tendency to overcompensate in, well, everything, a proverb has arisen. It goes: "Only a Witch could want to kiss you and kill you at the same time." This is most certainly true, as Witches sometimes find themselves frustrated with their Tamer's inability to keep up with them.

Their Witch's Curse attack causing completely and totally random things to happen, and not always for the Tamer's benefit. Fortunately, the effects are low-level and amount to nothing more than light slapstick humor for the most part.

There are rumors, though, of a Witch who wears scarlet, a Witch whose powers are strong enough to change the world entirely. All Witches scorn this rumor, however discreet observations have noted that the vast majority of them, especially older Witches, are afraid of the color red…

As an interesting side note, a Witch's Magical Affinity makes their skin much more sensitive, making them very ticklish and easily satisfied during Taming. It also makes them near useless in Sex Battles, but as they will state (very loudly, especially after being defeating by a Sex Attack), "That's not the kind of battles we're meant for, dammit! RRAGH!"

Also, never EVER accuse them of being Infernal. Doing so will get you a firecracker down the front of your pants. Most Witches have an almost instinctual hatred of Infernals, possibly stemming from a mystically-induced race memory of pre-Sukebe Salem. Frequently, when around an Infernal, they can be heard grumbling and occasionally muttering the words 'insult' and Salem.

Witches are a relatively common Threshold for the children of magic-type Pokégirls.

**Side Note**: Sometimes a Witch will be born with green skin. They usually have shorter tempers and meaner dispositions than their normal-colored comrades, and tend frequently to be found in Team Rocket-style groups, leading some to term them 'Wicked Witches.' They have a SEVERE skin allergy to water, as in being exposed to too much of it will result in severe rashes and painful boils growing on their skin. They can still drink it, however, as the allergy is just on their skin. Those affected describe the effect as feeling like they are melting. As such, 'Wicked' Witches quickly learn spells to keep themselves clean, as they don't have any other means of bathing…

**Kunoichi**

**Type**: Very Near Human  
**Element**: Normal/Dark  
**Frequency**: Common (in Edo League), Uncommon to Rare (all other Leagues)  
**Diet**: omnivore, prefers human style food  
**Role**: spy  
**Libido**: Average  
**Strong Vs**: Dark, Ghost, Psychic  
**Weak Vs**: Bug, Fighting  
**Attacks**: Smoke Screen, Vanish, Throwing Star, Quick Attack, Shadow Dash, Hazy Vision  
**Enhancements**: Enhanced Speed and Agility (x4), Enhanced Senses (x2), Enhanced Strength (x2), Enhanced Endurance and Durability (x2), Stealthy, Night Vision  
**Evolves**: Cheshire (Cat E-Medal), Kunimitsu (Fox E-Medal), Karima (level 40 + Shadow Stone)  
**Evolves From**: Ninjette (Level 15)

Towards the middle of the war, while the human armies were being decimated left and right, Sukebe created this breed. First given the mission of searching out and destroying small encampments and given anti-ambush roles, the Kunoichi graduated as the Ninjanezumi suffered- their Very Near Human state made them much more capable of passing as human women and getting past human guards with ease. Once given their mission to assassinate certain people- human generals, admirals, and even certain actors that Sukebe hated, the Kunoichi were practically the best at their field that the world had ever seen. Or never seen, perhaps, until after the war was over. Information about them was, however, gained during that latter part of the war from disaffected Ninjanezumi that were tamed by the first Tamers, but it wasn't until about 12 AS that the first recorded Kunoichi were captured.

This breed was originally created to fill a niche. Whereas the Ninjanezumi had proven squeamish in comparison to the other Pokégirl types and some had even been captured by the humans before fulfilling their missions, and the Cheshire had been created from Catgirls, the mad scientist himself took it upon himself to create a breed that could blend in with humans, act and talk and physically look like a human woman, but was in all other ways superior. The end result was the Kunoichi. Their actual capabilities, although somewhat less than the Ninjanezumi, ironically made it easier for the Pokégirl to imitate human women. Although not designed specifically for battle, the Kunoichi are also well equipped to fight in one. Their natural stealth capabilities, as well as her enhanced senses, speed, and agility often allow the Kunoichi to evade long enough for an opening to appear, and then to quickly capitalize upon it. Kunoichi prefer to attack from the shadows, and rarely battle straight out in the open in keeping with their style.

Most Kunoichi average in height somewhere between 5' and 5'7." They usually can be found in the same size as equivalent human woman of these heights, but their breasts are most often somewhere between a B-to-C cup in size. However, several have been documented both with smaller and larger breasts regularly, which makes this a rather diverse breed. Although most Kunoichi do prefer to wear tight fitting and not-so-revealing clothes, it has been documented that they do prefer to wear clothes that allow them to blend in with the location that they are in. In modern times, Kunoichi have been well known to get along with Seamstress Pokégirls, and generally prefer to get their clothes from one whenever possible, rather than from a department store. However, even if attempting to pass herself as some other Pokégirl by disguising herself, a Pokédex can pick out a Kunoichi in hiding easily.

Kunoichi have rivalries with two different Pokégirl breeds. One is with the Cheshire. Their areas of expertise are identical, and this rivalry is more often a common friendly rivalry, rather than one where each Pokégirl would want to destroy the other in battle. Researchers suggest that Cheshire and Kunoichi should not ever be in the same Harem at the same time, however, as each one will attempt to out-do the other in all ways, including taming. Taming both at once has only yielded one Tamer who managed it... and he wound up trading both away within a week afterwards, swearing to stick to Low libido Pokégirls from that moment forward. According to research done, Kunoichi can even evolve into a Cheshire through the use of a Cat E-Medal, although very few Kunoichi will allow this.

In the Edo league, Kunoichi also have some rivalry with Ronins. This is likely because of the difference between the two Pokégirl battle ideologies. Whereas a Kunoichi is subtle and more of a supportive Pokégirl, the Ronin are in your face and full out attackers. Ronin actively pursue the rivalry, while the Kunoichi try not to encourage it. This leads to Ronin being annoyed by the lack of participation, and encouraged to try and provoke a Kunoichi at any given opportunity. As a result, Researchers also suggest that Tamers not have both in their harem at the same time, unless the two Pokégirls are used to one another and some semblance of respect between them is obtained.

And I've decided on the Mistress's type as well.

**Vampire**

**Type**: Very Near Human  
**Element**: Ghost/Magic  
**Frequency**: Rare  
**Diet**: Blood  
**Role**: Hunters  
**Libido**: High  
**Strong Vs**: Bug, Fighting, Ground, Ghost, Magic, Plant, Poison, Psychic, Infernal  
**Weak Vs**: Dark, Electric, Ice, Celestial, solar-based attacks  
**Attacks**: Vampire Bite, Drain, Invis, Night Shade, Phase, Illusion, Fear Aura, Mega Drain, Dark Shield, Cocoon of Darkness, Dark Mist, Dark Matter, Blood Blade, Blood Bullets, Vampiric Touch, Ghost Blade  
**Enhancements**: Enhanced Speed (x4), Enhanced Strength (x4), Enhanced Endurance (x4), Enhanced Durability (x4), Enhanced Healing (x3), Darkness affinity, Constant Ashen Wings and Dark Goggles effect, light transformation and illusionary capabilities  
**Evolves**: Lucarda (Zalera's Blessing), Starlady (Dawn Stone)  
**Evolves From**: Humans, Dark-type Pokégirls or Amazon-type Pokégirls (infected through bite), Psivamp (Dusk Stone)  
**Bounty (for confirmed kill)**: 200,000 SLC (applies to Ferals only)  
**Bounty (for reporting sighting & getting out alive)**: 57,000 SLC (applies to Ferals only)  
**Bounty (for successful capture & taming)**: 57,500 SLC (applies to Ferals only)  
**Recommendation if you see one**: Before anything is done, be certain that the Vampire is indeed a Feral one. Observe it, trying if at all possible to stay out of its way. The difference between a Feral Vampire and a Tamed Vampire is very subtle. If the Vampire seems even remotely animalistic in nature, then evac immediately, making sure to have a fighting-type Pokégirl at the ready if you are spotted. If you are spotted, be prepared to kill the Vampire as its bite is potentially lethal and has the potential to infect you or your Pokégirls, resulting in a transformation into a Vampire. (applies to Ferals only)

·Vampires were one of the few species of non-Infernals that campaigned with the Legions of Terror during the war. Their presence alone was enough to inspire fear in the populace, and since Sukebe's research had yielded that humans could be converted to Vampires and forced into service with the Legion, they were considered to be even more terrifying. Human in appearance, save for their pale skin and more pointed than normal canine teeth, they were easily capable of blending in with humanity.

While sunlight didn't kill them, as it normally would with vampires in the old stories, they were weakened severely by the sun and generally stayed inactive until nighttime. This made it easier to catch and tame Vampires, however doing so guarantees that the Vampire will never have any respect for you. Catching a Feral Vampire at night, and especially at a full moon, when their powers are at their strongest, and you guarantee a loyal, cooperative Vampire in your harem.

Vampires have a variety of fearsome abilities. They can transform into pre-Sukebe creatures such as rats or bats, more powerful Vampires being able to change into swarms of these creatures. They can also transform into mist for silent movement through an area, remaining aware of their entire surroundings when transformed and capable of reforming at any time. They can pass through walls and turn invisible, and manipulate dark energy to their own ends. They are fierce, savage fighters when Feral, losing all of their complex abilities except for much lessened invisibility powers and natural flight. When Tame, their tactics change, as they tend to favor a combination of intimidation and evasive tactics, using illusions and trickery to basically terrify the opponent into defeating themselves. They can turn up to one other person invisible as well, as well as phase them through a wall, but only if they are completely tangible and/or visible before grabbing someone and using the ability.

Having a Vampire in your Harem is not recommended, but doing so shows that you have the patience, diligence, and willingness to do what is necessary for your girls to be happy. Vampires need only one thing to survive: blood. If a Tamer is willing to let their Vampire feed from them, just enough for the Vampire's needs to suffice, then they guarantee loyalty from their Vampire. It's best to let them stay in their Pokéball until nighttime, as they become severely weak during the day and cannot take pleasure from any sort of physical act, making Taming useless. In official Pokégirl battles, it is forbidden to use Solar attacks on them, as it is potentially fatal to them.

Vampires can secret a chemical substance through the hollow canines they use to feed. This chemical is what triggers the change into a Vampire. Males turn female before their transformation. To tell the difference from a normal feeding bite and an infected bite, looking for a greenish-yellow foam around the wound. A vampiric infection can be treated and cured within seven days of the bite via white magic and careful medical treatment, but by the eighth day, the effects are irreversible. Due to the nature of how Vampires are formed, no cases of Threshold have been recorded, or are believed to be even possible.

Note that Ferals are FAR more dangerous to travellers than Tame Vampires. Tame Vampires have a strong sense of dignity and are far more likely to be polite to people they meet. They will also NEVER drink more than they need to survive. Ferals are savage, and will drink even when they aren't thirsty. They also have less control over their bodies and are far more likely to accidentally infect someone with a vampiric transformation virus. Feral Vampires also command Feral Vampira, a breed that Tame Vampires look down on with derision and amusement, as they are moderately useful to their purposes.


	4. Chapter 4

The Mistress carefully glared at the large map, small miniatures placed at certain key points, representing important things. Not long ago she had angrily swiped several of those miniatures off. Now she was simmering, enraged over the loss, enraged that she'd even temporarily lost control of herself, and enraged at the fact that a new map would need to be drawn up once the results of that man's recent escapade began to settle down.

That man. That man was at fault. That ridiculous, unbelievably fortunate man. That man had to go.

She continued to stew, rapidly plotting the demise of _that man_.

xxx

Reaper's Vacation

xxx

Sylvas sneezed, the most recent of a long line of sneezes in the past ten minutes and grabbed a tissue.

"You know, I'm not sure, but I think I may be allergic to something." He mused aloud.

"It better not be me." The as-yet unnamed Witch grumbled, holding the tissue box.

"That... would be awkward." He admitted. "Moving the conversation away from that uncomfortable topic..." He continued, ignoring the witches grumbles about it not being an uncomfortable topic at all, really. "Have you seen Cecilia recently?"

"Hm.... oh that's right. Miss Cecilia mentioned that she was going to bully one of the lab techies into making her a shield out of part of the scrapped hull of one of those wrecked military vehicles. Really... she's acting like a shieldmaiden."

"A wh-?" Sylvas shook off the desire to finish the question. "Nevermind. I'm not sure what exactly you're referencing, but I can entirely understand the desire to have a chunk of metal between onesself and danger."

"Point. On the other hand, if it didn't hold up against Pokegirl attacks the first time, why would it now?"

Sylvas recognized that if this continued much longer he was going to lose the argument. Rather than confront the fact, a change of subject is in order.

"I'm sure Cecilia knows what she's doing." He asserted. "Speaking of which, I don't suppose _you_ have a name?"

"Wi-12-"

"Right, right... barcode." He interrupted. "So... how do you feel about 'Helga'?"

She stared at him for a long moment.

"Okaaay, no go. How about 'Henrietta'? Or-"

"You're _serious_." She seemed to realize. "And, you suck at names."

"Well, I'd like to see you do better on short notice." He snarked. She nibbled slightly at her lower lip in thought.

"Well... I've never really thought about this before." she said slowly, in a tone that said she had actually thought about it a great deal. "But if I had a name... Lucretia. That would be it." She nodded to herself.

"Ah. Lulu... and Cici." Sylvas grinned, finding some sort of twisted humor in his declaration.

"You do realize, master, that should miss Cecilia ever hear you call her by that name, she won't hesitate to carve you into bits and hide your body in the ocean."

"Ha. I'm not wor-" The blade of a sword came to rest delicately against his neck, and his tune shifted rapidly. "-Ried, because I have no intention of ever again calling either of you by such an annoying and juvenile nomiker."

"You see? He can be taught." Cecilia said from behind Sylvas, as she sheathed her sword. "By the way, the big man wants to see us, Boss. Apparently they've checked out a few of the places Lucretia here mentioned in her debriefing."

"You... you heard all of that, then."

"From Wi-12 on, boss."

xxx

"Thank you for assembling so quickly." Genryu rumbled. "As you know, we've recieved an influx of intelligence on our enemy. We now know that she is, indeed, planning on wiping us out. We've also gotten a surprising amount of information on her plans... most of which is unfortunately worthless, as the new recruit affirms, due to her standard operating procedures in case of spies and captured members of her army."

Genryu almost sounded like he admired his opponents paranoia.

"On the other hand, we've also gotten information that would have been useless to her, but may prove crucial to us. For example..."

Genryu clicked a button and a photographic display appeared on the wall behind him.

"This town, here, has an old ammo dump on the outskirts. Judging by the raised water levels of the nearby river from _someone's_ most recent exploits, we should be able to reach within a mile of the storage facility by way of the river. Hojo has retrofitted one of the hovercraft into an amphibious transport for this purpose."

"We have hovercraft?" Sylvas mumbled to himself, a sentiment clearly shared by many of the people in the audience.

"Of note is the fact that Feral activity in the area is remarkably low, so this should be a safe mission."

"Um, excuse me?" Sylvas asked, jerking a hand into the air and waiting to be recognized. "Exactly.... why is it, that Feral activity in the area is low?"

"An intelligent question? Well, I'm sure it had to happen sometime. Unfortunately, we don't have that infomation. All that we know is that it is, nothing about the whys of it."

"I see. Permission to just shoot myself in the head and get it over with quickly, then?"

"Denied. You're on bait duty again, just in case, because it seems to be what you do best."

"Running away and screaming? Yeah, I suppose."

"Yes, well, while you're making a nuisance of yourself with whatever may or may not be lurking in the area, Sam and Jack will be doing the real work of loading the vessel. Keep in mind that they will be leaving the moment it's full, and if you miss them you'll have to find your own way back."

"Through the teeming hordes of starving shebeasts..." Sylvas mumbled to himself as he slumped back into his chair. "Great. Well it's a good reason to be punctual, I suppose."

"As this operation with leave the defenses of the base low, it must be done quickly. Leave quietly, do your jobs, and get back as fast as you can, before the enemy takes advantage of the hole in our defenses."

xxx

Hojo stretched and glanced around idly. Alone... good. The mostly incompetent techies had been left to their own devices, the military portion of the people here were mostly off doing something today, and the civilians with nothing to do weren't allowed into military buildings or his laboratories anyway.

So he had the day to himself.

He stood and left the office, leaving his paperwork for another time, as he slowly made his way to a small storage room, filled with half-empty shelves. He closed and locked the door behind him, then spoke aloud the password.

An otherwise completely unremarkable section of wall began to shimmer and ripple like a vertical pool of water, and he stepped through into his _private_ labs. It was here that all the real work got done.

Not one of the soldiers or civilians had even thought to question exactly why the Ferals hadn't made a move to attack his facility, even before they'd arrived. It was because they knew that this was where he made his home, and while they didn't seem to have any real functional language while Feral, they were still able to impress a sense of 'that place is danger' to others they encountered.

He had no pokegirls. He simply didn't need them to defend himself, and he'd lost the urges that young men felt long ago as he slipped further and further into his research. The monstrosities around him were a combination of the fruits of that research, and failed experiments.

He was nowhere near the level of Sukebe. In reality, he felt that there had to be some truth to the rumors that Sukebe had blended technology and magic to form his greatest creations, as the best that Hojo could create were nothing near the resounding success of Sukebe's work. Indeed, there was no possibility that they could move unnoticed through groups of humans, like the pokegirls could, either.

On the other hand, there was no chance that Hojo's creations would turn on him, if only because they had no real sense of loyalty to begin with. They were mindless engines of destruction, pure and simple, with none of the complications Sukebe had built into his toys, like a sex drive, or the ability to think for themselves. They also had no real sense of pain, and so would continue to destroy everything within their reach until they expired, which was why he'd engineered them to be short lived, once removed from the goop they were currently floating in. The chance of an accident occuring was still there, but minimized greatly.

What he'd been working on for the past few days, however, was the samples of the filth that had encrusted on Sylvas' original labcoat. He had yet to identify it.

That was what made it so interesting.

xxx

"Keep away from the edge, Boss."

"Eh? Why?"

A tentacle roiled up out of the water, lashing for Sylvas' head before Cecilia lopped the tip off and it withdrew beneath the water's surface.

"Some breeds live in the water, either by choice or out of necessity." Lucretia deadpanned. Sylvas stepped slowly backward and decided to sit in a chair instead, several feet away from the rail.

An awkward silence set in, stretching on for nearly an hour as the vehicle made its way downriver.

"So..." Sylvas wondered aloud. "When is-"

"Shut up." Cecila interrupted.

"But-"

"Sh!"

"But, I-"

"Shut!"

"But-"

"Shut up. Right now."

There was a long moment of silence.

"But I just wanted to know when something was going to happen!" Sylvas whined.

Before anyone had the opportunity to smack him for jinxing things, there was a dull whoomph of cannonfire and a large splash just off the side of the transport as a small boat floated out from behind what was once the top of a good-sized tree.

"Ho there! Please remain calm and prepare all goods and valuables for inspection. This be a dangerous patch o' waters, an' I'm afraid ye'll have to be paying the toll if ye're wanting to pass through 'em."

There was a single shebeast on the vessel, Sylvas noted, with a boot set against a small cannon that she'd just finished reloading.

"Perhaps you've not noticed..." He put forward. "But it seems we outnumber you by a great deal."

"An' so ye are mate." She agreed, before smirking. "On the other side o' things though, seems ta me like I'm the only one what has a cannon. Bit o' poor plannin' on your part there mate."

Jack and Sam nodded at each other and pulled out a pair of automatic rifles, pointing them at the apparent pirate, who suddenly appeared both more and less pleased with herself at the same time, if that was even possible.

"Ah, so ye be the negotiatin' sort then. But if I might be pointin' out, me cannon here's a touchy lass. Far easier to fire off than's safe, really. I do believe that I could get a shot off an' sink yer metal raft, even as your mates are puttin' more holes in me than is supposed to be there, like. Seems ta me now that we be at a bit of a stalemate then, eh?"

Sylvas frowned then blinked and snapped his fingers.

"Oh! Oh, I just remembered, there's a word to use in this sort of situation! It's Puh...Pi, no... Par. Par...snip? Par... broil? No, par... parlu."

"Might 'Parlay' be the word ye're seekin', mate?"

"Parlay! That's the one."

"Well Parlay it be, then. Permission ta come aboard yer, ah...." She cast a jaundiced eye over the transport. "Yer _vessel_, then?"

Jack and Sam stepped aside for a quick, hushed conversation, even as Cecilia glowered at him.

"You know, you really try my patience sometimes, boss. There was no need to call parlay... she was bluffing. A normal cannonball would damage the transport, yes, but we could have been over land long before sinking became an issue and then fixed it."

"Well pardon me for wanting to settle things without resorting to violence. In case you hadn't noticed the ship may be fairly durable, but I'm not, and she wasn't actually aiming at the ship."

Cecilia frowned.

"You mean, she..."

"Well love, ye got to see it from me point of view." Came a voice from behind her, where the pirate shebeast had moved to at some point, having been assisted by someone onto the transport. "In me experience the one what steps forward ta talk for the rest be either the most important one there, or at least one o' the important ones. Either way, like, pointin' the weapons at them specific leaves ye with the upper hand in negotiations."

Cecilia's eyes narrowed.

"I should cleave you in half where you stand for that."

"Aye, perhaps ye should, but ye won't."

"And why not?"

With what seemed only a slight twitch, there was suddenly an antique single-shot pistol in the woman's hand, leveled directly at Sylvas' throat.

"That'd be because I've the upper hand now, y'see?"

"Whoa, whoa!" Sylvas interjected, carefully nudging the pistol away. "Let's not be so hasty to resort to violence, alright? Now personally, I don't like the idea of this coming down to a fight. There's no real reason for it, and if we can work our problems out rationally-"

"Butt out!" They both barked at him, the pirate lady returning the pistol to his throat.

"I could carve off your arm, sea-hag!"

"Aye, ye could, but ye'd have ta be quick indeed to do it before I pull the trigger, love."

"Then perhaps I should simply cut it off at the neck, then."

Sylvas sighed softly before turning and walking away, ignored by the two as even the pirate-lady didn't bother to twitch the gun to follow him as the argument progressed.

"I don't suppose _you_ could tell me just what has gotten into those two?"

"A dominance struggle, master." Lucretia replied, watching in interest. "They've both recognized each other as having become used to being the leader, and as the She-Captain seems to have been seperated from her ship and crew somehow, she's subconsciously trying to drag together a new one, and miss Cecilia is automatically resisting the attempt. Left to their own devices, they'll be at it for hours, I'm afraid."

"Oh... well we can't have that. Bucket."

A moment later, he interrupted the two's 'discussion' by hurling a large bucket full of river water at them, making sure to douse the pistol entirely as he dimly recalled something about it not functioning when wet. They gasped and spluttered, then turned twin glares upon him, forcing him to conceal his sudden realization of just how outmatched he would be if they decided to kill him.

"If you two are quite finished snarling at each other, we have some negotiations to get down to."

He dropped the bucket and stalked theatrically away.

"Hm... I like 'im. Nice lad, if a bit, ah... stupid. Eh, love?"

Cecilia just snarled wordlessly as she sheathed her sword.

xxx

The She-Captain opened the negotiations.

"So then mates... in 'change for not sinking yer lovely little vessel here an' pillagin' what, admittedly, very few valuables seems ta be available, but instead escortin' ye to yer destination an' back an' serving as protective detail along the ways.... I'd be gettin what, like?"

"What, exactly, might a lady like yourself desire?" Sylvas countered slowly.

"What do I want, lad? Well, I wants a lot of things, ta be frank. I wants me a new ship, since the scallywags what crewed for an' took me last one left me driftin' away on yon dinghy. I wants ta nail every one o' them scallywag's gizzards ta the mizzen-mast. I wants ta replace the crew wit' a bevy o' strappin' young lads, like, ta crew me ship an' serve as 'cabinboy'." She made a couple of obvious, and obscene, gestures to allude to what she was referring to with the last word. "I wants me a great pile of loot, ta cause envy in all th' pirates what hears of it, like. An' nows that we've cleared up what 'tis as I'm wanting, per'aps ye'll be kind enough to give me a hint, like, as ta what I can actually expect ta be gettin' out o' this venture."

Sylvas considered this carefully, tallying up what they had to offer, and what they _could_ offer.

"If I may suggest... the base has some very nice bathing facilities." He ventured.

She looked gobsmacked.

"'Ere... there weren't no call for that..." She mumbled, attempting to subtly sniff herself, and he realized tha his suggestion had come off all wrong.

"I meant no offense... I'm sure you can deal with your hygiene more than adequately on your own. I simply meant that a _hot_ bath must be something of a luxury for you, given your... lifestyle."

"Aye, that be true." She admitted. "Fire's a hazard upon a wooden vessel, an' while can be excused for cookin', like, just heatin' waters for me own baths would never stand with the crew. If I still had meself a crew, in any case."

"And it's not just hot water." He continued, pressing his advantage. "We've scented soaps and such, shampoos, and stand up showers which arent as relaxing, but much better for washing your hair."

She leaned back and considered him for a long moment.

"Well I be sorely tempted, I can tell ye that. Perhaps ye're not such a fool as ye first appeared, but do continue. What else have ye to offer?"

Sylvas sighed, forced to pull out the big guns.

"Well, I'm afraid we haven't much in the way of loot to offer. Not enough manpower to offer you your own harem, though you're welcome to try for volunteers from the base civilians, though most of them are terrified of all shebeasts in general and probably for good reason. Without knowing where your ex-crew went, there's not much we can do about that. Though... I suppose we could make a boat. Ship, rather."

He suddenly had the She-Captain's full attention.

"That be a nasty an' cruel jest ta play upon a lass." She said reproachfully.

"Oh it's no jest. I'm not technically supposed to be aware of this, I don't think, but the longer the captain remains entrenched at the base, the more he tries to shape the area to turn it into an impregnable fortress. Or as close to it as possible. Sooner or later, he's going to clearcut a lot of the forest in the surrounding area to be rid of the cover it could represent for a surprise assault, and when that happens there's going to be a lot of spare wood just left lying around to rot. I see no reason not to put that wood to good use."

"Ye... truly be serious in yer offer."

Sylvas was struck with a distinct sense of Deja Vu. Did he really seem like the person to make idle jokes, or promise things he couldn't come through on?

"If I was not serious, I would not have offered."

She stared for a moment, then spat in her hand and stuck it forward. Feeling mildly repulsed by the action, he did the same and clasped hers."

"Then we have an accord, lad." She laughed and tugged him forward, crushing his face into her hefty bosom. "An' hells, I'd have done it just for the fancy bath. Don't be thinkin' I won't stick around till ye've got that ship ye've promised me though, eh?"

Sylvas began to get the distinct feeling that he'd been completely gypped as she slowly wriggled his way out of the woman's embrace.

"Well.. if we're to be in such close association, then might I know your name?"

"'Tis Elizabeth. But to ye, lad, I'll answer ta Eliza, Liz, Lizzie, Beth, Lady Elizabeth, Mistress, or any other variation thereof ye can dream up."

"'Mistress'?" He wondered aloud, before realizing his error as the She-Captain leered at him and winked saucily.

"Aye, but ye might be wantin' ta save that one for private, like."

Sylvas groaned softly, wondering just how he'd gotten himself into another such mess.

xxx

A.N. Another short one, but I cranked it out much quicker than average, if that counts for anything. Helps that I've got an overabundance of free time at the moment.

Quick rundown of relative power levels of the moment.

Cecilia- Level 15 Warrior

Lucretia- Level 5 Witch

Elizabeth- Level 22 She-Captain

Zan- Level 40 Kunoichi

The Mistress- Level 65 Vampire

And on the She-Captain breed, this is the old version of her entry.

_**SHE CAPTAIN, the Commanding Pokégirl **_  
**Type**: Very Near Human  
**Element**: Water/Fighting  
**Frequency**: Rare  
**Diet**: human diet, mainly seafood  
**Role**: commander of pirates  
**Libido**: Average to High  
**Strong Vs**: Bug, Dark, Fire, Normal, Rock, Steel, Water  
**Weak Vs**: Electric, Flying, Plant, Psychic  
**Attacks**: Water Sword, Cheer, Perry, Slash, Cut, Carve, Sword Dance, Swordwave, Wet Jet , Go Down Caress, Cuddle, Slice n' Dice, Aura of Fear  
**Enhancement**: Enhanced Speed (x6), Enhanced Agility (x3), Enhanced Stamina (x3), has a wide amount of knowledge in both sex and sword attacks. Can command other Pokégirls, Natural Pilot.  
**Evolves**: None  
**Evolves From**: Buttaneer (normal)  
When a Buttaneer becomes very experienced in combat she looses most of her water abilities and gains sword techniques. They are excellent sword fighters but often will let those under her command attack the enemy. They usually stay behind the pack in the wild commanding her pack, giving them orders and overseeing the entire raid. She Captains have a natural affinity for piloting any sort of sea-vessel, be it a raft or a huge ship. Only the most dangerous of reefs or the deadliest of storms can cause a ship to go down when a She Captain is piloting it.

In a Harem they strive to be the Alpha even if they are in a Harem that already has an Alpha. They are very competitive and strive for number one in both pleasure and pain. Having two in the same Harem may be dangerous as they may duel to the death if their rivalry becomes very bad.

The average She Captain looks just like a Buttaneer but instead has clothes on that flit in the wind and are more majestic then the simple shirt and pants. She still may wear the shirt and pants but with a cloak or some other garment. Their bandana usually is discarded and a pirates hat would take its place.

In my opinion, however, this revised one is much better, and I hope it becomes the real one.

_**SHE-CAPTAIN, the Commander Pokégirl**_  
**Type**: Very Near Human  
**Element**: Water/Magic  
**Frequency**: Rare  
**Diet**: Human-style diet  
**Role**: Sea Admiral, Troop Commander, Strategy & Tactics, Heavy Assault  
**Libido**: Average to High  
**Strong Vs**: Bug, Dark, Fire, Normal, Rock, Steel, Water  
**Weak Vs**: Electric, Flying, Plant, Psychic  
**Attacks**: *Manifest Weapon (singular), *Manifest Weapon (double), Water Gun, Gust, Squall, Wind, Mirror Image, Tempest, Hydro Pump, Water Tower, Vortex, Water Floor, Typhoon, Whirlpool, Geyser, Bubbler, Tidal Slide, Teleport, *Ship Warp, Super Cyclone, Insulate, Hurricane  
**Enhancement**: Enhanced Strength (x2), Enhanced Speed (x2), Enhanced Agility (x2), Enhanced Dexterity (x2), Enhanced Endurance (x2), Increased Intelligence, Weapons Affinity, Water Affinity, Wind Affinity, Amphibious, Can instinctively pilot any and all aquatic vehicles  
**Evolves**: None  
**Evolves From**: Buttaneer (normal, high level), Piratit (normal, high level)

Buttaneers and Piratits are fine Pokégirls. They make an excellent navy for either actual pirates or League naval forces, or even for a singular Tamer near the sea. Some even use Buttaneers and Piratits to crew luxury liners, the sea warrior Pokégirls serving as excellent crew members and protection against actual pirates on the open sea. It's when they become She-Captains that their value goes through the roof.

She-Captains take the natural ferocity of the more animalistic Buttaneers and the grace and natural skill of the Piratits, combining them into a total package that makes for one of the most formidable Pokégirl breeds in the world. If they evolved from a Buttaneer, they lose almost all of their animalistic appearance and become completely human, although they still retain the human equivalent of whatever unique features they had. The only animalistic part of them that remains is some scales on their neck which has their gills on it, allowing them to retain their amphibious nature. Aside from gaining a foot in height and a cup size in bust, there is little to distinguish them from your average Very Near Human-type Pokégirl in terms of appearance, their hair usually hiding their scales if left long.

She-Captains, in terms of personality, become much more calm and collected than their two previous forms. They gain an increase in intelligence and the ability to better calculate strategies and tactics in battle. They make excellent Alphas for harems on either land or sea, although they are most effective when on the open ocean. Like their two previous forms, they can be used readily on land, although they will be somewhat melancholy and depressed unless they are on the open ocean.

She-Captains have a lot of powerful abilities. They retain/gain the ability of Piratits to manifest any one of three weapons their choose to master (but ONLY those three) in either singular or double form. However, like the Piratit, they have to write a mystic rune on the weapon they want to be able to summon and/or replicate. They also retain/gain the ability to control wind and water magic that Buttaneers have, only on a much more powerful scale. She-Captains also gain the ability to teleport from one seagoing vessel to another by melting into the hull of one ship and emerging through the hull of the other. What makes them especially valuable to both Naval and Pirate forces is their ability to pilot any sea-going vessel, be it an old pirate galleon, a luxury cruise liner, a high-tech submarine, or even a tiny dinghy. (As an amusing side note, 'a tiny dinghy' is also favorite insult most She-Captains like to use on most Tamers they do not like. They think it's funnier when the Tamer DOESN'T get the joke.) So skilled are She-Captains at piloting sea vessels that the only real way to sink one when a She-Captain is at the helm is to attack it.

She-Captains are best suited to the Alpha position. Their strong, domineering personality makes it extraordinarily difficult for them to accept leadership from anyone else other than their Tamer, whom they refer to/think of, as their 'Admiral.' She-Captains in the Navy tend to be better able to keep their crews in line than Pirate She-Captains, although both work well together, just in different ways. They are very protective of their Harem-sisters and/or crewmates, and are usually found in the thick of battle with them, barking orders around. She-Captains near or in a Feral state are usually twice as aggressive and rarely give orders that make sense. Their preferences in Taming do not change from their previous form, although they tend to start preferring clothing 'more suited to their rank.' An odd personality quirk common to most of the breed is that they all want a big hat of some kind and are somewhat edgy about letting people touch their hat.

As a side note, the warning about putting Pirate Pokégirls and Ninja Pokégirls in the same harem applies even more in this case. While Piratits and Buttaneers hate most ninja breeds (a feeling which is returned), She-Captains refuse to tolerate their presence at all unless their Tamer can give them six DAMN good reasons why. (They ask for six because it's less likely they'll get the reasons and get to attack.) This rivalry between the pirate breeds and ninja breeds is so intense that only Taverngirls are allowed into certain areas of the Ruby League and Edo League, due to high ninja breed concentrations. Taverngirls are the only evolution of pirate Pokégirls that can tolerate the presence of ninja Pokégirls, due to their generally mellow nature. (Covered further in the Taverngirl entry.) No cases of Threshold into a She-Captain have been reported.


End file.
